He was out of the team at that time because he was not playing well enough. End of. That should be the same for any footballer. He's in the team now cos he's better than anyone else we've got in his position. And at the moment bleedingly obviously so.
Look at the amount of goals and assists he got last season. Styles could play 3 seasons at this level and not get that many. At 1st he was suspended then struggled to get back in the team. It was only Derby away and Blackpool in the jpt when styles went into hide and seek mode again and Phillips has been in the team since.
Does that include the one he didn’t get credited with (wrongly in my opinion) when it was given as an OG instead of Devante’s goal? He started off slowly, maybe his confidence was knocked a bit, but he is definitely getting there. Disappears in games but it’s hard to fault his end product. Let’s hope he has a goal scoring run too like last season soon. Derby on Saturday would be nice.
If the point of your post is, like others (e.g Jimmy Viz), to say that Phillips gets a game cos he might do summat no matter how crap he's been, then I disagree.
But was he ever more ineffective than styles who was keeping him out of center midfield, no... not imo. It was almost like we were trying to put styles in the shop window. When he was ***** in center midfield let Phillips play and put him lwb instead of cadden.
Hasn't played a game for them yet. Hopefully he does well when he does and not back with us next season.
any coincidence that both Kane & Phillips performances have remarkably improved over last few weeks... just as Luca Connell has returned to the team
4 goals and 5 assists in last 13 matches. That’s some contribution from midfield. Also the cross for the own goal the other week is a 6th assist in my mind. If he gets another 10 goal contributions in the next 13 matches then good times!
I wonder how much his confidence was hit and how much he at least partly blamed himself for the playoff final. That said, he’s clearly over it now and long may it continue