“We had 18 months” - Ferdinand responds to England boss Southgate making worrying Kalvin Phillips replacement claim at Euro 2024

England legend Rio Ferdinand has responded to head coach Gareth Southgate's claim about lacking a replacement for Kalvin Phillips at EURO 2024. The Three Lions were dealt a blow to their chances of making it into the knockout stages, as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Denmark on June 20.

The first 45 minutes saw a struggling Trent Alexander-Arnold replaced after the Liverpool full-back failed to meet expectations in his midfield role. After the game, Southgate bemoaned Alexander-Arnold's performance, before revealing his need for a player like Kalvin Phillips (via GOAL):

"We know [playing Alexander-Arnold in the midfield] is an experiment - we don't have a natural replacement for Kalvin Phillips - but we are trying some different things."

Phillips has notably failed to keep his performances up after leaving Leeds United in 2022. The midfielder joined up with Manchester City, where he has played only 16 Premier League games before getting loaned out to West Ham United in January 2024. His loan spell was poor as well, as he made only eight league appearances for the Hammers last season.

This struggle to impress saw him being dropped from the England squad for EURO 2024, with Gareth Southgate apparently failing to find a replacement. However, Rio Ferdinand has provided a detailed response to Southgate's claim on his podcast FIVE, saying:

“The big question that I have, and I’ve been saying this for a while, could be a year or so, maybe even longer. In the qualifiers and friends, when we’re blowing teams away, why do we keep playing our best XI?

“Why are we not testing out the likes of Gallagher, who keeps getting minutes now. Why was he not tested earlier to see how he would fare at this level? Why weren’t we bringing in the likes of Watkins or Ivan Toney for a couple of games?"

Ferdinand continued:

“Why were we not seeing Gordon play more minutes? Same about Eze. There are all these players who we still don’t know if they’re going to be good enough, but they’re here. Guehi has been our best defender, but we didn’t know that before this tournament. He doesn’t get good amount of time to play at this level.

“When we’re saying we haven’t got a replacement for Kalvin Phillips, we’ve had probably 18 months to find a replacement for him. That’s where I’m a bit worried about. For 18 months we knew Phillips wouldn’t be playing for England.

"He couldn’t get into the City team, went on loan to West Ham and that didn’t work either. So we know a long time ago that he wouldn’t be on the plane. We’ve got Kobbie Mainoo sitting there, Adam Wharton sitting there.”

Phillips has made 31 appearances for England and notably played just 40 minutes across two appearances at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Gareth Southgate might be concerned about not having a Phillips replacement. However, he would need to find an urgent solution to ensure England make it out of the group stage at EURO 2024. They sit atop the group with four points, two above Denmark.

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England draw to Denmark as EURO 2024 dream begins to fade

In their first match of EURO 2024, a solitary goal from Jude Bellingham was enough to secure the win and all three points for England over Serbia. However, they struggled to create any key chances, with even Bellingham's goal coming off a deflection from Bukayo Saka's cross.

This inability to create chances continued in their second EURO 2024 game against Denmark, with the Danes proving impossible to deal with. An early goal from Harry Kane saw the Three Lions get forward on the scoreline, but they were unable to keep their opponents from equalizing.

They have mustered just seven attempts on target across two games. Now, with one more game left, a win against Slovenia would be required If they are to finish first in their EURO 2024 group.