It was easy, during his 18 fruitless months at Manchester City, to be seduced by the idea that Kalvin Phillips was a fine player and all he needed was to start playing again. And then he did start playing again and, having started the 3-1 win over Italy in October and been called up for the games against Malta and North Macedonia in November, he was left out of the squad Gareth Southgate announced on Thursday to face Brazil and Belgium.
“His form just hasn’t been good enough,” Southgate said, and that’s hard to deny. Three minutes into Phillips’s West Ham debut, against Bournemouth, his weak back-pass gifted Dominic Solanke a goal. Twelve minutes after coming off the bench for his second appearance, he was dispossessed, leading to a goal for Manchester United. Two games after that, he was sent off against Nottingham Forest when, five minutes after being booked for a needless shove, he committed a daft challenge on Morgan Gibbs-White.
