Gareth Southgate says England are struggling in midfield at Euro 2024 due to their failure to replace Kalvin Phillips, who hasn’t played for the Three Lions since November 2023.
The English team struggled to dominate yesterday’s game and were often put under pressure by the Danes in their 1-1 draw on Thursday night.
Southgate started the game with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Declan Rice as midfield anchors, with Phil Foden, Jude Bellingham, and Bukayo Saka playing as attacking midfielders behind striker Harry Kane.
On Alexander-Arnold, Southgate said: “He has had some moments where he has delivered as we thought. It’s an experiment – we don’t have a natural replacement for Kalvin Phillips. At the moment, we’re not flowing as we would like,” he said after the match.
Phillips, 28, had played a key role in England’s run to the European Championship final in 2021, but was not selected for Germany following a disappointing loan spell with West Ham after he had struggled to feature at Manchester City.
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“We understand people will be disappointed with the performances and rightly so – we have to make them a lot better.
“At the moment, we’re not using the ball well enough and have to accept that if you do that, you will suffer at times, as we have. We know there’s another level we have to find.”
England are still well positioned to progress from Group C as they sit on top of the group with 4 points. In their final group game, they will face Slovenia next Tuesday.
Today’s Euro 2024 Fixtures:
Slovakia vs. Ukraine
Poland vs. Austria
Netherlands vs. France
