Leeds United head coach Daniel Farke will be relieved to have his captain, Ethan Ampadu, back available after a spell on the sidelines with a knee injury.
The German boss now has Joe Rothwell, Ampadu, and Ao Tanaka as frontline midfield options, with Ilia Gruev still to return from his knee injury.
Marcelo Bielsa, the last Leeds manager to win promotion from the Championship, was also blessed with an array of quality midfield players in the second tier.
When the West Yorkshire outfit won the second tier title in the 2019/20 campaign, the Argentine tactician’s stars in the middle of the park were crucial to the club’s success.
Bielsa's brilliant Leeds midfielders
In that title-winning season, the two central midfielders with the most starts for Leeds in the Championship were Mateusz Klich (45) and Kalvin Phillips (37), as they combined to provide steel and quality for Bielsa.
The Polish ace provided quality on the ball in the final third, with goals and assists, whilst the English brute was a defensive presence at the base of the midfield, as you can see in the table below.
Appearances
37
45
Goals
2
6
Assists
2
5
Tackles per game
2.6
1.9
Interceptions per game
1.4
0.5
They remained key figures in the Premier League but Adam Forshaw, who had only started six times in the Championship, emerged as a key player in the top-flight in the 2021/22 campaign, after missing the first year in the division with a broken kneecap.
The English midfielder started 17 of his 22 appearances in the league and made 3.3 tackles and interceptions per game, whilst also completing 84% of his attempted passes. This shows that he was composed in possession whilst also being a combative presence in midfield.
He was loved by Marcelo Bielsa, who appreciated the uniqueness of Forshaw’s profile in midfield. The Argentine boss once said:
“He has a feature that is very difficult to get. He defends similar to Kalvin, he attacks similar to Klich. What he does close to Phillips doesn’t impede, it is not a problem for him when he goes close to Klich to attack. You are not going to find a lot of players with this kind of characteristic.”
Despite being similar to Phillips and Klich and impressing in the 2021/22 Premier League campaign when called upon, Forshaw was unable to kick on in a Leeds shirt.
Where Adam Forshaw is now
The English maestro only started five of his 12 appearances in the top flight under Jesse Marsch in the 2022/23 season and missed out on 22 matchday squads.
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Unfortunately, his injury issues limited his career at Leeds and the club opted to release him, aged 31, in the summer of 2023, before Farke’s arrival at Elland Road.
Forshaw then made the move to Norwich City on a free transfer and only made nine appearances for the Canaries in all competitions, before joining Plymouth in January of this year on a free transfer.
Appearances
14
Goals
0
Assists
0
Red cards
1
Key passes per game
0.3
Tackles and interceptions per game
1.8
As you can see in the table above, the veteran midfielder has offered very little to Wayne Rooney’s side, with more red cards than goal contributions and fewer than two tackles and interceptions combined per game.
These statistics, and his short-lived stint at Carrow Road, suggest that Leeds made the right decision to part ways with him in the summer of 2023, as he has not recaptured the form that led to love from Bielsa in the past.
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