Speaking on his YouTube channel, The Overlap, Gary Neville has given his verdict on Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips ahead of the Euro 2020 final.
The midfield pair have been stellar so far at the tournament, barely putting a single foot wrong throughout the competition.
Everyone is busy fawning over Rice and Phillips at the moment, but it hasn’t always been this way.
Indeed, at one point some supporters were calling for them to be dropped, but Neville thinks Gareth Southgate was absolutely right to stick with the pair.
What’s been said?
Neville was reviewing England’s defensive performances at the tournament so far.
“The performance of the defence, the performance of the goalkeeper, but also those two in the midfield, Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips. It feels like it was about three years ago, it doesn’t feel like it was in this tournament that people were calling for Rice and Phillips to be out of the team after the Scotland game,” Neville said.
“People were saying we don’t need two holding midfield players against Scotland against Czech Republic, get Foden in there or get Grealish in there, but I have to say Gareth stuck to it, the team have stuck to it, they have a plan and they’ve gotten there through clean sheets.”
Southgate’s genius
Criticisms surrounding a lack of creativity in the England side earlier this tournament were absolutely fair, but Southgate stuck to his guns and it’s paid off.
Yes, the Three Lions only scored two goals in the group stages, but they got the results that gave them a favourable run to the final and now here we are.
If England can keep another clean sheet on Sunday, the Three Lions will have a massive chance of winning the final, and Southgate will rightly be hailed as a genius.
Rice and Phillips have been the backbone of this team, but a lesser manager would have lost faith in the pair at an earlier stage.
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