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Reports broke early on Sunday morning of an England team that lacked the presence of a clear left-back and Jack Grealish not starting the match. Raheem Sterling was favoured and a slight negative midfield consisting of Declan Rice, Kalvin Phillips and Mason Mount.
The line-up was confirmed as the one reported earlier in the day, a squad that saw some of the names from the previous tie against Croatia at a major tournament, no longer part of the set-up.
Only six English players started both games, Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling, Kieran Trippier, John Stones, Kyle Walker and Jordan Pickford with Gareth Southgate also changing his system to benefit the host of attacking talents that the Three Lions’ future will be christened with.
From the previous encounter, the game started very similarly with an overriding presence of the Three Lions within the Croatia half, looking to cause issues for the Croatian defenders with every attack.
Sterling linked with Foden well in the early minutes, but the bookies’ favourite to get the Young Player of the Tournament award, was unlucky not to see his curling shot nestle into the bottom corner with the ball hitting the inside of the post.
On the contrary to the previous tournament, whilst England looked dangerous from set-pieces, it didn’t seem to be their main threat at scoring, with open play scenarios seeming to be favoured through the midfield’s incredible passing range with a large majority of the early attacks coming as a result of long balls.
The star of England’s midfield without a doubt was Leeds academy product, Kalvin Phillips. The midfielder rarely started for Leeds before the 2018/19 season with coaches overlooking the Englishman for Ronaldo Viera, however, with Viera’s sale to Sampdoria, Phillips has been the engine in the Leeds midfield.
Since then though, the 25-year-old has seen an astronomical rise under Marcelo Bielsa, becoming the first name on El Loco’s team sheets with the Argentinian seeing the midfielder as a ‘personal project’ and the work is paying off in dividends for both club and country.
In the Whites’ promotion season, Phillips featured largely and was named in the Championship Team of the Season for his consistent performances. Just two months after his final second-tier appearance, the midfielder received his first call-up to the England squad.
Phillips has earned a further eight senior caps, with his latest in the victory against Croatia as he was awarded the Man of the Match award with his role in the creation of England’s goal. A brilliant run down the line, saw him receive the ball from Kyle Walker before the Yorkshireman would take on and get past two Croatian players to slip in Sterling for his first goal in a major tournament.
This wasn’t Phillips’ first involvement though, following a corner early in the game which the Croatians failed to deal with properly, he struck the ball into the crowd on the volley with Dominik Livakovic parrying the ball away, but it could’ve easily been a goal if it had hit a Croatia player on the way.
The Yorkshire Pirlo nickname is apt following that performance. On the ball, the 25-year-old excels with the midfielder completing more take-ons than any other England player on the pitch (2). In addition to this, he made 31 successful passes and recording a 100% success rate with his long passing showing just how vital he was going forward.
Yet his performance wasn’t limited to the attacking part of his game, defensively Phillips was an anchor, seven ball recoveries, four duels won, one interception and one tackle won. It is very difficult to see how the midfielder is taken out of this side.
It was a great day for the future of the English midfield as a whole, with Jude Bellingham coming on in his first major tournament and looking comfortable with the pressure that was brought with it. The additional pressure of becoming the youngest player (17 years and 349 days) to feature in a European Championship game, beating Jetro Willems’ previous record of 18 years and 71 days.
However, now the question that must be asked is, will or should anything be changed? With no disrespect to any other group members of Group D, England have faced, beaten and at times dominated the supposed hardest team in the group.
Is the double pivot of Rice and Phillips interchanged with the introduction of Jordan Henderson if he is fit to deal with the younger and potentially more hungry Scots? Although he had a good game, does Kieran Trippier get replaced by a more natural left-back? We won’t know until news filters through throughout the week.
If there is one thing for sure that today taught us, it is simply this.
He’s magic you know, Phillips the Yorkshire Pirlo.
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