'He wore it brilliantly' - YEP's Leeds United Player of the Season revealed

Graham Smyth

Leeds United’s title-winning season was born of collective effort, underpinned by a squad-wide decision to buy completely into Marcelo Bielsa’s methods, but within that framework individual brilliance was given space.

Into that space and into the lives of unsuspecting Whites fans waltzed YEP Player of the Year Ben White.

When a team finishes 10 points clear of their nearest rival, in a division as competitive as the Championship, selecting one player to reward for his contribution is a thankless task. Stuart Dallas’ willingness to play anywhere and his ability to do so competently earned him the Players’ Player of the Year award. Pablo Hernandez, whose creativity was key all season and who was nothing short of inspirational in the run in, despite a hamstring problem, took the club’s main award. Either man could have been handed the YEP prize with little room for argument from any quarter.

But when you take into account that White wasn’t just a replacement for Pontus Jansson, but an improvement, and when you consider that the 21-year-old had never before played as high as the Championship, his almost unerring consistency was freakish and made him just as worthy, if not a little more so, of this award.

What tipped the balance, for me, was White’s reading of the game and how it impacted Leeds’ style of play.

We all remember spectacular goals and inch-perfect passes but, if asked to imagine a phase of play that summed up Leeds United’s season, it would involve White nipping in ahead of an opposition attacker to recover possession, gliding away from an incoming tackle and doing something progressive with the ball.

It was very difficult to score against Leeds last season, because it’s very difficult to score a goal when you can’t get the ball into the Leeds’ half or build an attack through your centre forward, or because you’re constantly on the back foot.

White pushed Leeds forward, from the back.

He handled the division’s physicality, its relentless fixture schedule and the weighty expectation that is sewn into the fabric of a Leeds United shirt. He wore it brilliantly.

Lee Sobot

There are naturally a whole host of contenders when it comes to naming a player of the year for a Leeds United side who ultimately romped to the Championship title by 10 points.

Spanish magician Pablo Hernandez and the extraordinarily versatile Stuart Dallas would have to be near the front of the queue along with skipper Liam Cooper who has captained the Whites to a Premier League return after 16 years of hurt.

But Cooper’s defensive partner at centre-back, Ben White, has had a simply outstanding season that could literally be viewed as perfect on the figures, if not visually too.

Perfect because the Brighton loanee managed to play every single minute of every single league game for Leeds during their Championship winning campaign. That would be a remarkable feat for even the most experienced and settled of pros.

Yet White checked in at Leeds without having made one competitive appearance in either of English football’s top two divisions and was essentially tasked with filling the big boots of then talisman defender Pontus Jansson following the Swede’s departure to Brentford shortly after White’s arrival.

Those in the know were fully aware of White’s talent and potential that had been evident during season-long loan spells at Newport County and Peterborough United.

But you are talking League Two and League One respectively and the Championship is an altogether different beast.

Yet White took to the challenge like a duck to water and the only problem with his stellar season will be the likely very hefty price tag for any club that wants to prise the defender away from Brighton with Leeds, obviously, mad keen to sign him.

Not turning 23 until October, White has the world at his feet and the centre-back has shown skills not befitting a typical centre-back during his forays forward and the occasional stint in the holding midfield role when another star man, Kalvin Phillips, has been absent. It was fitting that White’s final game of the season even saw him adding his first-ever Whites league goal with a rocket of a volley into the top right corner in the 4-0 cruise at home to Charlton Athletic.

The strike was almost as impressive as Luke Ayling’s thunderbolt in the victory over Huddersfield Town, almost that is, and Ayling is another strong contender in player-of-the-year discussions though every member of United’s first-team squad has played a valuable part.

White, though, literally played every single part, impressively, and therefore edges the vote.

Joe Urquhart

It is testament to Leeds United’s Championship-winning squad that never before has a Player of the Year award caused as much internal debate.

A number of arguments could be made for many in Marcelo Bielsa’s side. Stuart Dallas was handed the Players’ Players of the Year award - which says as much about his character and willingness to embody the ‘side before self’ spirit as anything else.

The Northern Irishman’s versatility has been crucial to Bielsa’s set-up and there were even debates over whether right-back Luke Ayling would be able to force his way back into the team early on in the campaign such was Dallas’ form.

Ayling himself returned from injury to have the season of his career - and single-handedly drove United’s promotion hopes in February during a difficult run, which saw him score three goals in six games and bag the Goal of the Season gong. And then you have Pablo Hernandez and Kalvin Phillips - two players who have set the highest of standards under Bielsa’s stewardship. Leeds, though, took a huge gamble last summer. The Whites swapped centre-back Pontus Jansson - who was named in the 2018-19 PFA Championship Team of the Year - for Brighton loanee Ben White, who was yet to kick a ball in the division.

“I think I’ve got it in me to do it,” White replied last July as to whether he was up to replacing the outgoing Swede.

Twelve months on he has been proven more than right and Leeds have been vindicated - and therefore has to take the honours. The 22-year-old played every minute of every single game this term - the only squad member to do so - and his consistency has been staggeringly impressive from the first time he glided out of defence at Bristol City last August.

White appears quiet and unassuming away from the football pitch, but there is a certain swagger to his play that has been clear for all to witness this season. There is also a confidence born from a belief in his own ability - his driving runs and risk-reward style of play in the last line of defence say as much.

The Premier League awaits no matter where his future lies, and it won’t be long before England calls emerge on the horizon should he acclimatise to the top flight in similar fashion.