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Mourinho takes aim at Kalvin Phillips over England performance

Last night England secured their second 1-0 win of the Euros to claim top spot in the group and progress into the Round of 16.

Victory was handed to them by Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling. His early goal was the only one of the game as he remains the only Englishman to find the back of the net at the tournament. Nonetheless, it was a much more encouraging performance as Gareth Southgate opted to go more attacking which left Leeds United star Kalvin Phillips in a double-pivot alongside Declan Rice in midfield.

Phillips had previously impressed further up the pitch for England. He was the best player on the field against Croatia in the first game and came up with a vital assist.

However, it didn’t all go according to plan for the Leeds United midfielder despite the fact he was in a more familiar position as England switched to a 4-2-3-1 which saw him play much deeper than in previous games.

Whilst working for talkSPORT before taking over at Roma next season, former Chelsea and Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho criticised parts of Phillips performance despite the 1-0 win. In fact, he came after Phillips and his former player Luke Shaw who he’s had problems with in the past.

Despite overall praising England, Mourinho targeted the duo criticising their set-piece delivery: “The only negative thing I would say is they were very poor on attacking corners.

“The service was dramatically bad. They have so many good players to attack corners.

“Luke Shaw, in my opinion, very good tonight but very poor on the corner. Kalvin Phillips, the same.”

Funnily enough, this isn’t the only time England have had problems when it’s come to taking corners. At the last Euros, Roy Hodgson was widely criticised for asking Harry Kane to take the corners despite his brilliant aerial ability.

It appears Southgate may have made a similar error in judgement. Despite James Ward-Prowse’s excellent season and his brilliant performance in the final friendly before the Euros, Southgate left the Southampton man at home. There are few better set-piece takers in the Premier League at the moment and it appears Southgate may rue not including him in his squad.

Southgate is also without Trent Alexander-Arnold. The Liverpool right-back holds the record for most assists from a defender in a single season and plenty of them came from corners. Southgate also chose not to field set-piece expert Kieran Trippier last night.

That said, we all know the quality of Phillips with the ball at his feet and last night was no different. Again and again he played probing long balls that threatened to rip open the Czech Republic and he definitely has quality when it comes to set-pieces. Perhaps then it was simply an off night for the midfielder.

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