Leeds United winger makes admission over Marcelo Bielsa's absent key man in Brighton loss

Marcelo Bielsa's men lost their seventh game of nine league outings this season without the defensive midfielder in the line-up in the Premier League.

Leeds fell behind after just 14 minutes on the south coast as Gjanni Alioski tumbled Danny Welbeck to the floor leaving referee Chris Kavanagh no choice but to point to the spot.

Seagulls midfielder Pascal Gross converted before Welbeck added a second thanks to a clever turn and finish with time running down to seal all the points.

In the absence of Phillips, German international Robin Koch stepped into midfield to sit in front of the back four.

United, though, were unable to hit their usual heights as they mustered just two shots on target throughout the contest at the Amex stadium.

The defeat signalled yet another loss without their Thorp Arch academy product involved, who was absent due to a minor knock picked up in training ahead of the game.

"Kalvin is a huge player for us," Harrison conceded post-match.

"He's done excellent and he's a massive part of our team. We've got some great players on the bench that can step in and add different aspects to the game as well.

"You saw today in the middle they added some things that we might have been missing.

"Kalvin is a brilliant player for us and breaks up a lot - he's obviously key to how we play but those players came in and work hard... I thought they did well."

Asked whether Leeds were still looking at the European places after the defeat, he said: "We're an ambitious team, we're always pushing to break our limits and the European places are something we're definitely looking forward to.

"It's difficult, we've had a great season so far and it's easy to get caught up in everything. We're not finished yet and we're going to keep fighting until the end and see how well we can do."