Kalvin Phillips

And I thought we got so much better once Pep came onto the game.

Calvin Phillips.

I'm going to give Calvin Phillips an eight.

And some people are going to hate that.

And some people are going to love it.

And I'm going big for Calvin because, as I've just said there, I think for so much of this game, he played a one-man midfield role.

And I think we put so much pressure on his shoulders.

Calvin Phillips is clearly our best player.

It's frustrating watching goals like this.

I will say when this play devolved the other way for Darby, you mentioned Calvin Phillips losing the ball.

It almost felt like when they got the ball, this might be a goal.

And sure shit, that's what it turned into.

Big time.

From the starting 11 that were in there.

Obviously, Calvin Phillips started the game, but the other two coming on it subbed.

The question I want to ask you, and I guess it's circulating around the Twitterverse or wherever the internet is somewhere, because everybody and their brothers clamored for Donovan to start.

United went there and we made changes.

So we started with Cooper in goal, Burrows started at left-back, and then it was Kitching, McGuinness, Tanganga, Brereton-Diaz, Arblaster and Phillips in the middle.

Chong, Cannon and Jordan Ayew got his first start.

Be honest, what was your reaction when you saw the team?

Yeah, he was.

Burrows was really good.

And then, obviously, Arblaster and Phillips looked decent in middle, didn't they? Which sort of runs on to the next one at Derby, where it justified the selection.

Well, do you think that's the best you've seen Arblaster play since his injury?

That, for me, was the biggest positive is we actually kind of pressed a little bit, which for a John Eustace team was bizarre.

But we definitely found the weakness and I thought, if Calvin Phillips is worth all the money he was bought for from Leeds, how much is David Ozo worth? Because he was everywhere in that first half, especially for me, the best player on the pitch in most of our games this season.

And, you know, and getting the best out of him in this shape is ideal because he is some footballer, is Mr. David.

Yeah, and I think having Ozil and Clarke together just gave us so many legs in the middle.

And, you know, I mean, he is very good at setting up, as I said earlier, he's very good at setting up the game plan to bully Chowdhury, but also he's not so good when you need to make that change because it just never came, did it? And you could just see the goal happening and, were getting deeper and deeper and deeper and the balls into the back post specifically on the right hand side of the back post have been our kryptonite so far and uh it strikes once again

Yeah, it certainly did.

And on the subject of substitutions, we were talking about it before we started recording, didn't we? Henrik Meister was on the end of a horrible challenge from Calvin Phillips where you could see stamped on him.

I think he dragged him back, stamped on him, probably still angry that he failed at City.

My team for Derby, it's a 4-3-3 with Cooper, Chowdhury, Tanganga, Kitchen and McCallum.

Peck, Phillips and Blaster.

BBD, Cannon and Chong.

I like that.

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I'm going to cop out and go Calvin Phillips in the middle.

That's not how you play this game.

We were actually playing through the thirds really quite nicely.

Calvin Phillips, such an important player.

in that kind of system I think he got man of the match and I think deservedly so because it's his sort of patient and his way of build-up is so important to actually giving United a bit more of an identity I also think once again I'll talk about this all the time so apparently all I ever talk about I love the fact that the wingers were on their right wings it makes a huge difference I genuinely believe we are a much better more balanced more effective football team when the wingers are on their right side so they can go to the byline and pull it back across rather than constantly having to cut inside and being so predictable.

It makes a real difference to me in terms of how United are going to attack the season moving forward.

It's the one prediction that we never falter on.

And yet, he didn't play at Bristol City.

Calvin Phillips and Oli Arblaster put in a pretty good performance together and Oli Arblaster scored the winning goal from 20 yards on the volley.

I mean, you really have a debate now around what is right for the club.

Like, I mean, if you look at, like, Sheffield United, their back line, and look who they brought on in that second half.

They brought on, like, Calvin Phillips at halftime.

Like, and no matter what you think about him...

He was playing for England not that long ago.