I love Phil and am desperate for him to do well. The media narrative was Phil is being timid and needs to take on more responsibility.
He’s caught between a rock and a hard place as he’s no lw, especially when he’s not surrounded by intricate passers who he can link with. Then having no natural lb again means he can’t get space from a Gvardiol taking a defender away. Finally he gets the ball so slowly, it’s inevitably when he’s surrounded by 10 defenders ahead of him.
But saying that, he has been poor in general. He has great dribbling skills and can dart inside more, he must know his place is at risk but he was just very lethargic.
With the setup and ‘tactics ‘ of Southgate I’d say he’s pointless in this system. Just get him injury free and ready for a big season at City!