It’s been an interesting week to follow Leeds United.

The club are in the midst of an injury crisis, but that didn’t stop them from getting their best result of the season on Friday as they beat Aston Villa 3-0 at Villa Park.

However, one issue that was apparent at Villa Park was the fact that the Whites missed Kalvin Phillips quite a lot.

Indeed, Bielsa’s replacement for Phillips was subbed off after just 20 minutes of action and going forward he may have to find another alternative as Pascal Struijk showed he wasn’t up to scratch on Friday.

In the same week that it was reported that Leeds were planning talks with Ouasim Bouy to terminate his contract, it’s hard to not look at United’s first-team picture and think about how things could have worked out differently for Bouy and that he could have been a valuable asset during this time.

Now, we’re not saying that he should be a first-teamer or that he hasn’t played his part in his own misfortunes, because he has, but if he wasn’t completely frozen out of the team, now would have been the time to give him a chance.

Bouy could easily have slotted into the Kalvin Phillips role, being a natural defensive midfielder himself, and he certainly had the eye for a pass that the Yorkshire Pirlo has built his career on.

“He was a creative player with a golden left foot. He scored tremendous goals but he had this great feeling for when to play the through pass and how to put attackers in good positions to score. That was his great asset,” One of Bouy’s former coaches said of him.

However, for one reason or another, his career has gone off the rails and he’s never played a game for Leeds United, despite once being touted as a wonderkid.

Bielsa froze him out almost as soon as he arrived, but perhaps if the Argentine had given him more of a shot to prove himself, he wouldn’t have such a sticky situation in defensive midfield right now.

Unfortunately, it seems as though Bouy’s chance to make any sort of impact at Leeds has been and gone.