Gary Neville believes Kalvin Phillips has looked like a “fish out of water” during his time at Manchester City.
The popular pundit had his say on Phillips’ reported loan move to West Ham United as well on Sky Sports (via Twitter).
It was claimed on Tuesday that the Englishman had agreed to sign for David Moyes’ side on loan.
Gary Neville says Kalvin Phillips has looked like a “fish out of water” at Manchester City
Into his second season at the Etihad Stadium, the £150,000-a-week (Sport Rac) man has played 380 minutes of Premier League football in both campaigns put together.
For context, such figures amount to having played only five full 90-minute matches in over one and a half campaigns for the Englishman.
Now, Gary Neville has given his two cents on Kalvin Phillips’ difficult spell at Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side and his potential loan move to West Ham.
“He needs to play football. I mean, that’s for sure. Obviously, we remember he was a major England player, someone we thought would do well at Manchester City, you normally think City don’t make mistakes in the transfer market. It’s just not worked out for him there, obviously, they’ve got fantastic options in midfield”, he said on Sky Sports.
Neville continued, “But West Ham losing Declan Rice, I think it’s a good move for West Ham, it’s a good move for Kalvin Phillips, hope he can stay fit and get a lot of football in before the Euros in the summer.”
“Well, we know he’ll play in midfield alongside [Tomas] Soucek, he’d play in that two I’d imagine in there. He’d have Soucek to go forward and he sits in there, he’s a good passer, he’s got good experience.”
Gary Neville also touched on why players like Kalvin Phillips may struggle at Manchester City.
“Look, Manchester City is a football team that is unique and if you’re just not quite as sharp on the ball as those around you, he’s playing with Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, you can look a little bit like a fish out of water.”
“There was a little bit of that of Kalvin Phillips at Manchester City but when he goes to West Ham, he’ll fit in there, no problem. He’s a really good player and a really solid, David Moyes type of thing to have on the pitch.”
Kalvin Phillips did not suit Pep Guardiola’s idea of a defensive midfielder
While Gary Neville raises a fair point about Kalvin Phillips’ spell at Manchester City, in our view, he simply lacks the attributes of an archetypal Pep Guardiola number six.
The £42 million (The Athletic) man was proficient at defending space in front of him at Leeds United as part of Marcelo Bielsa’s high-pressing style of play.
However, at City, a defensive midfielder is required to be more static and dictate proceedings.
In addition, several of the attacks that the Sky Blues face are when they are being countered upon, as opposed to Leeds, who used to exploit sides in transition.
As a result, Kalvin Phillips was tasked with defending acres of space behind him, which is a flawed facet of his game.
Taking such factors into account, it was no surprise to see Phillips struggle every time he put on a sky blue shirt.
