Gareth Southgate reveals England's problem: No Kalvin Phillips

Gareth Southgate hinted that England's performance suffered in their disappointing 1-1 draw with Denmark due to the absence of Kalvin Phillips.

Southgate mentioned the struggling midfielder following his unsuccessful attempt to play Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield during the European Championship.

In a harsh criticism of the alternatives at his disposal, the England coach expressed, "For nearly a decade, we have struggled to fill the gap in midfield. Without Declan Rice, I'm not sure where we would be. Regrettably, Kalvin was unavailable for us in this competition."

"We are searching for new ideas and experimenting with different approaches. Some have been successful while others have not been as effective. This has been an ongoing challenge for us. We are working to find the most effective solution and will continue our efforts in the weeks ahead."

These are the challenges that we must address and come up with answers for. We must evaluate both performances and collaborate to overcome them. Allowing players to choose their passes gives them the opportunity to make plays that could potentially cause harm to our team.

Phillips was a standout player for England during the previous Euros tournament, and his strong performances led to a lucrative move to Manchester City the next season.

However, the decision did not go as planned and it turned out to be a complete failure. Pep Guardiola criticized him for being overweight, but later on, the City manager apologized for his comments. Phillips only played in 16 games before being sent on loan to West Ham United in January.

He changed teams hoping to impress the England national team for Euro 2024, but unfortunately, it didn't work out as planned.

Southgate acknowledged that starting Alexander-Arnold was a trial run. He mentioned that there were times when the player performed as expected. He admitted that they were aware it was an experiment and that they did not have a suitable substitute for Kalvin Phillips. They are testing out different strategies, but currently, the team is not performing as smoothly as they would prefer.

Gary Neville said that he didn't think Rice was capable of playing the defensive midfielder position that Phillips had excelled in.

Neville expressed his belief on ITV that when he comes back to get the ball from deep positions, he has very fundamental skills.

At the same time, Southgate expressed his sorrow over Luke Shaw not being available to play in the Euros due to his ongoing fitness issues.

Right now, it's evident that our team is lacking our top left-back player. This lack of balance is affecting our overall performance.