‘We never do that’: Kalvin Phillips says Southgate’s had him training something Bielsa never has

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Speaking on the Official England Podcast, Kalvin Phillips has been speaking about what it’s like to train with the England camp.

Phillips has been working under one of the best and most unique coaches in the world over the past two years in the shape of Marcelo Bielsa, so understandably, things are going to work a little differently when he links up with the national team.

What’s been said?

Phillips was speaking about the standard of the players in England training, claiming that it was abundantly clear how good everyone was when they did a possession drill, something Phillips never does at Leeds.

“Definitely. The first time I went into training we were doing possession, but at Leeds, to be honest, we never do that, we never do possession based stuff, we never do small sided games or anything, so I was just stood in the middle in awe of how what I was seeing and how good some people were. It was just scary to be honest,” Phillips said.

Interesting

It’s certainly interesting to hear that Bielsa doesn’t do any possession training with Leeds.

The Whites dominated possession on almost a weekly basis when they were in the Championship, and they weren’t too bad at keeping the ball in their first season back in the Premier League either.

We’re not going to question any of Bielsa’s training methods. After all, this is the man Pep Guardiola once claimed to be the best coach in the world, but the fact that he doesn’t do any possession drills is certainly an intriguing detail.