Rodri is world class. Phillips certainly isn't. He's very good championship level player i think. A gamble signing that hasn't paid off. He didn't play badly at all but doesn't assert himself on a game. He certainly wasn't responsible for the defeat so not a 'whipping boy for me'. Just a weakened team out tonight tonight against a team playing their 'cup final' in the second half. Pep not really arsed about this game and maybe players picked up on this.could of been sharper,but considering the game time hes had with us that is understandable, his problem is hes being judged in a position where we have had ferna and rodri for the last 10 years, he isn't a bad player in fact hes a very decent player and i knew as soon as the whistle went at full time i knew he would be the whipping boy,one annoying part was the newcastle goal although rico made a bit of a hash of it phillips should of got back into the middle , a run of games might do him good(fingers crossed)
Didn’t sound at all sarcasticSaid “yeah he did very good” but in an extremely sarcastic tone of voice. Then asked if he’ll play again and replied “we’ll see”
Probably wasn’t. Before Bielsa we didn’t think he’d make it at Championship level. Actually worth noting that just around the time Phillips was about to break out of the academy, Cellino was trying to destroy the academy (firing all the staff, draining the pool etc.)I thought he was doing ok. Rodri makes the odd bad pass or makes the odd poor decision so I was fine with those. The hope being that over time he'd do less.
But.... He could have ran to the Necastle players on his left for their goal. They were the obvious threats should a cross come in and there was no one there. But he just stood in the center of the box like it was someone else's responsibility.
For me it was only that incident that I felt showed him up severly but I've seen that laziness before in his game and I think it's engrained in his footballing style forever. He wasn't coached properly as a kid imo.
This is simply not true. His passing is absolutely fine.
I don't think it's just tonight people are basing their opinions of Phillips on!Ultimately he needs to be better than just okay to have any meaningful role here i agree but his starts for us are in the single digits still and he's playing in a much changed side for the first time this season.
Id hope for more but okay is a perfectly acceptable level for tonight. The criticism on here is entirely unwarranted based on that performance.
The question to ask then is Why did we buy him? We are usually very thorough in our research on players both on and off the pitch. He seems a decent and popular member of the squad, so he met all the requirements there and he must have impressed enough of the recruitment team right up to Txiki to do the deal for him. So something has happened after that. Maybe it is just a case of wrong club at the wrong time.He is mentally slow, clearly has low football IQ and is always playing catch-up with his decision making, it’s a shame he is mentally deficient as he seems a nice guy and technically he is decent. Unfortunately City require a high level of footballing intelligence from our players and getting him up to speed will be difficult as he'll need to be taught the basics first. Sadly just nowhere near good enough!