Here are your Leeds United evening headlines for Tuesday, January 12.
Phillips criticism
Noel Whelan has slammed Kalvin Phillips for the midfielder's performance in Leeds' 3-0 defeat to Crawley on Sunday afternoon, crashing out of the third round of the FA Cup in the process.
Leeds produced a disastrous second-half performance to fall to the League Two side, conceding three goals while they huffed and puffed at the other end. And Whelan singled out Phillips for his poor performance.
"It wasn’t his best performance," he told Football Insider. "There were many areas of the field where it wasn’t happening for Leeds and the players and he was one of them. He didn’t have his usual dynamic performance that we expect from Kalvin.
"There were a few mistakes along the way with his positional sense, giving the ball away, making a mistake that nearly created a chance for Crawley to nearly take the lead in the first half."
On Leeds' overall performance, Whelan added: "There was a catalogue of errors from a lot of players when it came to simple things like passing four yards, keeping hold of the ball, playing the ball into the right space at the right time with the right weight and it just wasn’t there.
"We looked raggedy at times, we looked all over the place. Quality in the wide areas was lacking all the way through the game.
"I don’t think we created any chances from wide areas and we got into some good areas in the 90 minutes. We could still be playing now and we wouldn’t score any goals against them."
Douglas' future clarified
Barry Douglas' future has been clarified amid talk that he could be recalled by Leeds after Blackburn were revealed to be interested in Crewe Alexander left-back Harry Pickering.
Pickering's potential arrival perhaps hinted that Douglas could return to Leeds with his first-team opportunities limited as a result.
However, as Blackburn reporter Jaquob Crooke writes for Lancs Live, Douglas will remain with Blackburn until the end of the season, whether Pickering arrives or not.
"As things stand, Rovers have no intention of returning Douglas to Leeds United, regardless of Pickering being signed or not," Crooke writes.
Douglas is in the final year of his Leeds contract and is increasingly likely to leave at the end of the season.
McGurk bid rejected
Leeds have had a bid for Wigan Athletic youngster Sean McGurk reject as they look to once again take advantage of the Lancashire club's financial difficulties, per the Sun.
Leeds signed Joe Gelhardt in the summer, swooping in to sign the talented young prospect as Wigan looked to recoup value after going into administration and suffering a 12-point deduction last season.
However, Wigan's financial troubles are far from over, and Leeds are reportedly looking to take advantage once again, this time signing McGurk, who is in the final six months of his contract.
Leeds are said to face competition from Celtic and Rangers, who can both sign a pre-contract agreement with the 17-year-old as they are non-English teams.
