'A poor man's version of Leeds United' - Morecambe boss Stephen Robinson makes sense of Alfie McCalmont loan

GOOD MOVE - Morecambe boss Stephen Robinson believes his aims for Alfie McCalmont align with Leeds United's. Pic: Getty

Leeds United’s Alfie McCalmont met a dropping ball as it bounced, not quite making the contact he would have liked but enough to deceive an unsighted David Stockdale for the first League One goal of a loan that raised eyebrows in the summer.

McCalmont scored eight goals in the division below for Oldham Athletic last season, handling his first real taste of men’s football so comfortably that there was talk of interest from bottom-end Championship and top-end League One clubs.

There was talk of a possible permanent exit too - McCalmont was in a group for whom Leeds would have listened to offers - but his preference was to remain a Whites player and go on loan.

On July 2 he joined Morecambe, promoted to League One via the play-offs and predicted to drop straight back down by 22 of 24 journalists covering the division’s clubs.

Three weeks prior to McCalmont’s arrival, the Shrimps appointed former Motherwell boss Stephen Robinson as their new manager. Derek Adams, the man who guided the club to third tier football for the first time in their history, had quit for Bradford City.

Eleven league games into Robinson’s tenure they are outperforming expectations, sitting 13th, five points clear of Charlton Athletic and just a point behind Sheffield Wednesday and Portsmouth.

McCalmont has appeared in 10 of those fixtures, starting six times.

After just a few minutes listening to his manager for the season, his loan move starts to make sense.

“I know Alfie from the Northern Ireland set-up,” Robinson told the YEP.

“I knew I was getting a top quality young signing. He scored a lot of goals in League Two. He hasn’t quite replicated that but hopefully with Saturday’s goal it’ll start to come.

“We want more from him on the ball because we know he’s very capable of that. It takes a wee bit of time, the understanding with his team-mates, getting to know everybody.

“In the last three or four games he’s been excellent and he’s been a big part of what we’re doing. He’s got a brilliant attitude and fitted into the group really, really well.”

McCalmont was seen as an understudy to defensive midfielder Kalvin Phillips at Leeds. At Oldham he played further forward and relished it. Robinson uses him as one of two ‘eights’ in a three man midfield, making the most of the education McCalmont received at Leeds under Marcelo Bielsa and former Under-23s boss, Carlos Corberan.

“With the personnel we’ve got he’s much more of a benefit playing further up the pitch,” he said.

“We press in what you might say is a poor man’s version of Leeds. We’re not quite as cavalier as Leeds or as good as Leeds at it, but Alfie obviously brings those attributes. You can see he comes from a club that does that. Him and Shane McLoughlin in midfield they both rat and bite all the time, constantly, double pressing and it sets everybody else off. You can definitely see that’s a trait from Bielsa and the coaching he’s had at Leeds.”