Kalvin Phillips

[SamBlue]

Obviously Pep disagrees with majority of the posters here about Kalvin's performance yesterday. We lost because we were caught by their hurrying in the first 10 minutes of the second half, Kalvin's performance was just the average of the whole team.

 

[Brewster's millions]

I did say a minority. And there isn't anywhere near as many talking him up. Trust me. I try to keep an eye on the match threads, and watch out for needless abuse. There's very few bigging him up.

I assumed we were only talking about this thread, rather than the Matchday thread.

Including the Matchday thread, I probably wouldn’t disagree with you.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

Not getting on his case, and he's a decent enough player. But what strikes me about him is that he appears to have absolutely no invention in his passing. He can do a decent lateral pass on either side, five yards, ten yards max. Tidies up and passes back ok. But otherwise, let's be honest, offers little more than that. And sorry, but at the level City are at now, really, more is expected. You really see the difference with everyone around him. Forget Rodri. Aké can ping a forty yard pass over the heads of the opposing defence and right on to the foot of, say, Erling or Alvarez. It's rarer, but so can Akanji. Stones we don't need to talk about.
He's surrounded by very, very good players. And it shows. Pretty sure now that he'll move on.

 

[pee dubya]

If he turns this around to become a trusted member of the squad, massive respect to him but I can't see it.

His performances are so far off the required level, it just looks very bad when he's on the pitch.

Obviously he does some good things, he's an England international, not a terrible player.

 

[chedlee]

I think the new phrase is 'press-resistant' when it comes to describing midfield player attributes. Rodri has in spades (though not immune to getting caught out now and again) Gundogan was particularly good when in tight spaces as well. Kovacic and Nunes both seem capable under pressure but Phillips seems particularly weak in this very specific and very necessary for City, area of his game. Given time and space which both the England and, perhaps Leeds, style of play afforded him and he did ok. I suspect that he could adapt but clearly isn't doing so quickly enough.

 

[Le Havre Oswald]

Like he’s won a competition. Great lad but so out of his depth

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Do you think he's a tackling machine? I think one of his weakest attributes is his physicality. He's weak as fuck. Never wins a shoulder to shoulder/duel/50-50. Joelinton, Isak, Murphy all bullied him in the first 15 mins yesterday. People constantly running off him.

Not sure if it's a confidence thing but he's just not up to in in any sense and I've been quite vociferous in my defence of him. Time to draw a line under it in January/end of the season.

He's not the consistent tackling machine I would like, but I think that is the only option Pep has of 'development'!

 

[Crooked_rain]

Not getting on his case, and he's a decent enough player. But what strikes me about him is that he appears to have absolutely no invention in his passing. He can do a decent lateral pass on either side, five yards, ten yards max. Tidies up and passes back ok. But otherwise, let's be honest, offers little more than that. And sorry, but at the level City are at now, really, more is expected. You really see the difference with everyone around him. Forget Rodri. Aké can ping a forty yard pass over the heads of the opposing defence and right on to the foot of, say, Erling or Alvarez. It's rarer, but so can Akanji. Stones we don't need to talk about.
He's surrounded by very, very good players. And it shows. Pretty sure now that he'll move on.

I don't think his passing is a problem, I actually think he has a decent range of passing and always has.

I just think his confidence isn't all there, so he's might not be willing to try a more difficult ball out of fear of losing it.

I just think he's lacking more in his ability to read the game, his positioning and things like that. You can see a noticeable different between him and the likes of Rodri and Kovacic, they just seem to automatically know where to be to receive a pass and be available and it gives them a second or two longer on the ball, which is a lot at this level. I just think the way we play exposes those limitations in Phillips.

Stick him in another team with a different style of play and he would do a decent job, i have no doubt.

 

[sh249]

Just doesn’t seem to think quickly enough. Always a step behind, a second too slow to move. Small margins but make a huge difference for us.
Hopefully it will all click at some point and he’ll become a useful squad player. But it’s hard to ever see him getting enough minutes for that to happen. And I’m not sure he’s got the determination to make it work - never really get a sense of him busting a gut to impress. All a bit half-assed, so far at least.

 

[metalblue]

Phillips does have a decent pass in him, the chance where Alvarez’s shot was saved by the keepers outstretched foot came from an intelligent forward pass from Phillips. Generally his passing was neat with the odd clever pass chucked in for good measure.

That he pulled up on edge of area isn’t an issue, the way we play is to hand over responsibility to the defence, we don’t have the midfield all running in to the box that just causes confusion - he was on the edge to collect the second ball and defend the edge of the area. That’s his main job in that situation. However he could have probably read the danger on the overload for their goal at the far post - and the absence of danger just outside the box - better. Lack of match sharpness for me there or something to be coached. He may not get it and then, yes, won’t ever be a regular for us or someone pep fully trusts.

Folk saying he shouldn’t play again for us need to give their heads a wobble - let’s see how he does over the next few games. Let’s be honest here Rodri has made more mistakes in most games this season than Phillips made last night.