Chris Sutton has blasted the claim that Tottenham’s, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, is ‘miles ahead’ of Leeds and West Ham United’s defensive rocks, Kalvin Phillips and Declan Rice.
A caller rang up 606 on BBC Radio 5 Live Sport, with Sutton making it clear that his comments about the Leeds and West Ham duo are just ‘plain wrong’.
There’s no doubting that Tottenham’s midfield aggressor – Hojbjerg – has been outstanding at Euro 2020, but so have the unsung heroes from Leeds and West Ham.
Nonetheless, Sutton wasn’t having any of the claims that Hojbjerg is better than Rice and Phillips, as he issued this response.
“That’s utterly ridiculous,” said Sutton. “Hojbjerg is a good player, so is Delaney.
“But to say that Hojbjerg is miles ahead of Phillips is just plain wrong. Gareth Southgate sees a lot in him (Rice).
“When you look at his performances throughout the tournament, he has been very consistent. Gareth can trust him.
“And it’s the same with Phillips. This debate that Rice and Phillips shouldn’t play together, it should be one of them. But Gareth has nailed it. He’s got his calls right.”
Well, the trio will be in action at Wembley when England host Denmark in a nail-biting Euro 2020 semi-final showdown on Wednesday.
All three players should be expected to start and it will be interesting to see if Gareth Southgate opts for a three-man midfield or just the two.
The Dane’s do like to play three at the back, so if Southgate wants to match them up then it will be just the two.
But after they tonked Ukraine last time out then there’s no reason why he shouldn’t just stick with a flat back four.
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