Jamie Shackleton primed to fill valuable role for Marcelo Bielsa
Of the many sub-plots that came together to produce Leeds’ play-off second leg against Derby, few will be worth remembering. The details of that night are too heavy to recount; too galling and too worthless now, with pre-season for 2019–20 underway. What happened under the lights on May 15th has no need for elaboration. And anyway, even with the benefit of having attended and re-watched the game, the overriding conclusions are still hazy. “It’s not necessary to analyse (the game),” as Marcelo Bielsa said shortly after full time.
Bielsa was right — trying to find reasons why Leeds’ season had ended was pointless then. The consequences of the result were abrupt and definitive. Leeds weren’t going to be promoted and the season was over, with any other implications falling underneath that. The future for Leeds, and how the events of May 15th had influenced it, would take some time to be pieced together.
At the forefront of this future, wedged in between the colliding realities of Leeds’ promotion dream and their crushing collapse, was Jamie Shackleton.
“From a team spirit (point of view), the only way you accept the arrival of a young player is when you make the team better. And for me this happened very clearly with Jamie Shackleton.” — Marcelo Bielsa, May 2019
The 19-year-old first played for Leeds back in August 2018, coming off the bench for the final 17 minutes away at Pride Park. In between then, he had performed the role of sometimes substitute: a 10-minute reliever for an exhausted midfield teammate, or occasionally as a bolt of electricity from full-back late in games. In December, injuries led Shackleton into consecutive league starts as the deputy right-back, although he then wouldn’t feature again as a starter in the league until May. The play-offs — Leeds’ biggest pair of games in over a decade — from which he began on the bench, and went on to play 156 of 180 possible minutes.
Leeds’ second leg against Derby was Jamie Shackleton’s fourth league start in professional football. It was his second league start at Elland Road, and his first ever league start while playing in his natural midfield position.
For the circumstances of his appearance in the team, compounded by the size of the event and the fact that he spent much of his time man-marking Mason Mount — one of the standout young English players in his age range, who played 38 games last season — Shackleton’s performances were the most consequential sub-plot of the play-offs in regards to Leeds’ immediate future, as well as a timely reminder in the final throes of the season that the 19-year-old’s inclusion in Bielsa’s squad is not simply a case of making up the numbers.
Although comfortable playing at right-back, the play-offs offered us the chance to see Shackleton playing in central midfield for his first extended minutes in the first team. And even from the evidence of the 2019 play-offs alone, it’s clear to see what Shackleton offers in this position, and how that can be effective for Leeds in the short-term.
The most striking aspect of Shackleton’s game is the natural tempo with which he plays. This is a theme that carries over practically all of his actions on the pitch. Even in the most basic responsibilities — be it playing a short pass wide to a full-back, or simply recovering position goal-side of his marker after Leeds turn over possession — Shackleton is always looking to get through his tasks sharply, allowing for as little waste as possible. This is a particularly good trait for a teenager, given that the natural struggle for players of Shackleton’s age is usually the reverse: they have difficulty meeting the speed of the senior game, and are more prone to dwelling in their decisions.
In possession, Shackleton looks to set himself quickly and keep play moving through the team with rhythm. As we can see in the graphic below, his use of the ball in the play-offs came almost exclusively through short, high-efficiency passes, seeking combinations and promoting movement in classic Bielsa style.
This was characteristic of Shackleton and Leeds alike. While the teenager is sharp and economical in possession — he turned the ball over with just 19.7% of his touches in the Championship last season — the Whites are also a team who look to advance their play quickly through midfield areas.
Despite having the highest rate of possession in the Championship last season, Leeds ranked 20th in the league for the percentage of their passes that were made in the middle third of the pitch. This evidences the way in which Bielsa wanted his team to play — with patient build-up in the defensive third, but then the acceleration through midfield and into the attacking third. Leeds would rarely be seen preserving the ball in safe midfield areas with long spells of lateral passing, even in the later stages of games when they held a comfortable lead.
This way of playing makes Shackleton highly compatible with Bielsa’s ideas, particularly in the №8 role. Given the tempo at which he operates, it’s conducive to the 19-year-old always moving quickly into the next phase of play — once the ball is passed, Shackleton is already looking for the return or to create space. This ability to transition quickly from defence to attack (and vice-versa) is a key attribute, and one that has heightened value playing under Marcelo Bielsa.
When assessing central midfielders, we would usually consider speed and agility to be lower-priority skills. Welcome, of course, but not essential, compared to that of a winger or a forward. However, Shackleton is able to harness these as the driver for his play in a way that makes him a fairly unique case as a box-to-box midfielder.
The 19-year-old is effective at progressing the ball, both through dribbling and taking up good positions in support runs. When you then factor in the speed at which he’s able to do so, it presents a real problem for opposition midfielders who will rarely come up against players as quick as Shackleton in central areas. In the open field he is simply a mismatch for most, while he needs no invite to go through the gears.
Likewise, Shackleton knows he can exploit space over short distances to create more favourable situations for the team. Just small injections of tempo can take Leeds from a neutral position into an attack with momentum, and these too are moments which he will learn to pick more precisely as he gains in experience and gets a better feel for how he can use his attributes to his advantage.
In addition to his obvious value in possession, Shackleton also projects as a competitive defender within Bielsa’s system. The Argentine once summed up his strategy on defending as “we run all the time”, stating that it’s easier to stop danger than it is to create. The reality of it is a bit more precise however, with Leeds playing a rare man-to-man marking style and handing individual assignments for each player out of possession in every game.
On the whole though, much of Leeds’ work in defensive duties comes through individual duels, recovering position and getting bodies around the ball. This suits Shackleton’s skill-set, particularly given the amount of pursuit that Leeds often have to do out of possession. His energy and quickness to the ball was apparent in the play-offs against Derby, especially in what were two highly competitive games featuring lots of contested duels.
Shackleton has split his minutes across central midfield and right-back for both the first team and the U23’s in 2018–19. This co-existence between the two positions compliments his defensive work across the two, with both roles forcing him to become adept in different situations. In midfield, Shackleton stands out for his speed of pressing and then recovering if he finds himself ahead of play.
At full back, Shackleton gets challenged in 1v1 duels much more frequently, and this is another situation in where we see how well his physical ability serves him. The teenager’s agility allows him to adjust his feet very quickly, which when coupled with his aggression in contact, makes him a tricky opponent to get rid of.
Although he is small in stature, Shackleton is able to use the benefits of his physical ability — low centre of gravity, agility and endurance — to outweigh the potential drawbacks when playing against bigger, stronger opponents. Within Bielsa’s system where his players are expected to play with maximum intensity, Shackleton fits the bill more than adequately.
It remains to be seen what role Bielsa will deem appropriate for Shackleton in 2019–20, but there is little doubt that the Argentine knows the value of what he can bring to the team.
With the benefit of another full pre-season — coming off the back of mature performances in the play-offs against Derby, as well as a subsequent call-up to the England U20 squad for the Toulon Tournament — the young midfielder appears to be gathering momentum at the beginning of what looks to be a potential-filled career.
(Stats via Opta / clips and pass map via InStat)
