Kalvin Phillips knows Leeds United will always stay level-headed with 'battering' from Marcelo Bielsa in mind

Phillips, is, after all, speaking from experience, with Whites head coach Marcelo Bielsa even giving United’s Yorkshire Pirlo a “battering” despite his seemingly excellent displays for England.

Leeds will again be without the services of Phillips for Monday night’s Elland Road clash against the Foxes which United approach following a hugely impressive 3-0 victory at an Aston Villa side who had previously won four out of four.

A rapid 19-minute Patrick Bamford hat-trick brought that sequence to a crashing halt as Leeds took their tally to 10 points from six games following their earlier victories against Fulham and Sheffield United as well as a draw against Manchester City.

Marcelo Bielsa’s Whites even went close to taking a point against champions Liverpool at Anfield on the opening day of the season only for Mo Salah to break Whites hearts with a late 88th-minute penalty in a 4-3 thriller.

Phillips, though, says that running the champions ‘ragged’ gave his newly-promoted side belief that they could cause any team problems and repeat such displays on a weekly basis on their return to the Premier League after a 16-year absence.

Yet equally, United’s Academy graduate midfielder says there will be absolutely no chance of his side getting carried away or being over confident come Monday’s return to action against Brendan Rodgers’ fourth-placed Foxes.

Phillips has enjoyed a sparkling start to the new season with the midfielder handed his first England call and the 24-year-old has quickly amassed four caps.

The first of those came in a goalless draw in Denmark in a Nations League clash in September which came four days before United’s season opener against Liverpool.

Phillips played 76 minutes for the Three Lions and then the full game for the Whites as part of a start of a season to remember.

Yet even then Whites head coach Bielsa called in his midfielder for a meeting to highlight the areas for improvement and Phillips knows it will be the same again as a team in the run up to Monday night’s clash against Leicester.

Paying tribute to Bielsa’s handling of his squad and his players, Phillips was asked by the Leeds That podcast if his head coach packed a lot of information into his side before games or if there were instructions to each players.

Phillips explained: “We do stuff as a team, we will have team meetings and stuff like that and he will tell us who he thinks is going to play, without spying on them.

“He will tell us what formation they play because we adapt to whatever formation they change to, that’s what we adapt to.

“We will adapt man to man to them.

“Last year or the year before you have seen me play centre-half sometimes and that’s literally just because they had two strikers so if the team has two strikers I am playing centre-half and that’s just the way he goes into individual detail like he will bring you into individual meetings.

“Obviously I had the games for England, and thought I had done reasonably well, and same against Liverpool as well, but the meeting after that he took half an hour to just absolutely batter me.

“He just said that I wasn’t good enough, he said the first game you were all right and then the second game you just didn’t look yourself, you didn’t do this and you didn’t do that.

“You are kind of just sat there thinking I actually thought I did quite well.

“I think in a way he does it so that you are not up there all the time thinking we are playing Leicester next week and we just beat Aston Villa who were top of the league, we’re playing Leicester next we’ll do all right and we’ll play well again.

"He just wants you to let you know you have bad games and you can always improve and you can’t always have unreal games.

“That is something that the manager does very well, he always keeps you level headed, he doesn’t let you get too high and doesn’t let you get too low, and if you do get too low then he is the type of manager that will just keep consistent with you.

“Patrick Bamford was getting so much stick the last couple of years but he has been so consistent with him and look at him now, he’s on top of the world, and scoring unbelievable hat-tricks against Aston Villa.”

Phillips was so excited by Bamford’s hat-trick that he almost made his current shoulder injury worse.

The Whites midfielder fell awkwardly during the second half of the 1-0 loss at home to Wolves on October 19 and tore ligaments in his shoulder but the midfielder is hoping to be back in three to four weeks, if he can remember to keep his arms still that is.

“I am just trying to get it better by not really doing anything with my arms and that,” said Phillips.

“When Pat scored, I was absolutely buzzing.

“I was screaming and punching the air and then I ended up hurting my shoulder even more. It was Pat’s fault!”

Bamford will now be looking to further add to his impressive tally of six goals in six games in Monday’s clash against Leicester in United’s latest test against a Premier League big gun.

The Foxes only missed out on a Champions League place by one place last season as part of a fifth-placed finish and last weekend’s 1-0 victory at Arsenal sent Rodgers’ side fourth and just one point off top spot.

Phillips, though, says United’s opening display against the division’s defending champions offered his side belief that they could repeat such displays against any team in the division, especially given Bielsa’s backing and with more time in between games than in Championship football.

Phillips reasoned: “I think with our manager he makes you feel like you are there for a reason, you are not there to be beaten, you are not there to just take part, you are there to play your game of football and put the England champions to test.

“I think he just makes it so much easier for us just by the information that he gives us and the tactical details that he gives us.

“You know exactly what you are going to come up against.

“We were surprised after that first game, we were all sat there and thinking we have just literally run Liverpool ragged for 90 minutes and it’s something that we have not been used to before.

“You look at that and then you think well why we can’t we do that with every team in the league.

“I think after that game it just opened our eyes to say ‘listen, we are a very good team, we put the best team last year under so much pressure and we can do that week in week out’ especially now that we don’t have Saturday Tuesday games as well, it gives us more time to prepare and stuff like that.

“It’s just the way the manager works and it just makes you feel comfortable with knowing how they are going to come and play.”

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Thank you Laura Collins