Chelsea defensive midfielder scouting series part three: Kalvin Phillips

In the second part of this series, we discussed Leicester City’s Wilfred Ndidi and how he would fit into Chelsea’s midfield should they decide to go after him. Ndidi is more of a traditional defensive midfielder and therefore would be best utilized in a midfield three or in a lone defensive midfield role. The fact that he plays for a team that is not as possession oriented as Chelsea may also make people hesitant to value him as a midfielder in a team like Chelsea.

In this part of this series we’d be discussing another defensive midfielder that is perhaps more progressive and plays in a more possession oriented team than Leicester City: Leeds United’s 25-year-old Kalvin Phillips. Philips joined Leeds United’s academy aged 14. He rose through the ranks and has already made 188 senior appearances for the club, albeit most of them we’re in the Championship. Many sources have mentioned Chelsea lacking chance creation from central midfield and Phillips might just be the one. He has a superb passing range, all from defensive midfield and he always makes the right decision in possession. He’s not afraid to play a risky long ball to try and break pressing lines.

Phillips will be compared with Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante, as Kante is currently Chelsea best player in the role, and is quite a competent one at that, though the Frenchman has been injury prone recently. Phillips might just be more of a creative defensive midfielder. Phillips should also offer Tuchel the versatility required to use more than one formation, perhaps in the same game. Part one highlighted the profile of defensive midfielder Chelsea needed and Phillips seems to meet a substantial portion of the requirements.