Load of rubbish. Phillips way out of sink. Ackroyd injured. Wolfe Injured. Russell. Too slow. Kane backwards and sideways. Connell. When will we see him again. Benson can't get a game. Styles doing it by himself.
Controversial opinion. Phillips is performing exactly as he did last season but unlike last season his overall poor performances aren't being masked by one brilliant pass or shot every few games.
I think it's the best midfield in league 1, and also the one with the greatest depth. All about opinions, but do you want to suggest who has a better group?
If you are the manager looking at Phillips goal / assist record you struggle not to pick him. Unfortunately when he is not scoring or assisting he offers virtually nothing. As ST says much like last season. But I don’t see how as a manager you can drop him. You just wait the bad run out. As for the midfield as long as you don’t pick Russell and Kane against better teams it is pretty good.
Kane doesn't want to be here and is biding his time waiting for that big offer to come in that ain't ever coming.
Phillips is a strange player. He doesn't really do that much, but what he does do has a tendency to win football matches. I can't see his loss of form being permanent. Players don't just forget how to pass or shoot.
Kane excellent again today, ran the game start to finish, spraying great passes around both back to create channels for colleagues and forwards to exploit openings. Been my MotM in 4 games so far and clearly the best outfield player this season after Cole.
It's a proper strange one with Phillips your eyes tell you he's not very good but his stats last season told you otherwise,those fleeting moments good pass or shot on target made him worth picking but his overall play he's a bit of a passenger but isn't football a game of fleeting moments. It sums the whole team up for me this season are we any good to be honest I've no idea after this amount of games you usually have an idea top 2 or 10th neither would surprise me.
Agree about Phillips. I see him in a similar vein to Lampard, in that he suddenly pops up with a goal or is arriving late in the box after not doing much during the game. It'll come.
Why dont players understand the amount of offers from bigger and better clubs have a direct coefficient with how well your playing. I think someones told Styles, maybe they need to chat to Herbie.
I think we do have the best midfield group in the league and the players listed in the OP would get into any other team in the division in my opinion. With the exceptions of Ackroyd, who I haven’t seen enough of, and maybe Wolfe given he’s been out injured for so long.
Not sure I'd go quite as far as you have, but he was excellent yesterday and it wasn't for the first time this season. Phillips offers a lot in most games too, I don't understand why people don't see it, although he wasn't very good yesterday. Styles scored a very good goal yesterday, but then gave the ball away more than any other player and put our defence under pressure on half a dozen occasions. And yet everyone is talking about how good Styles was, but Kane was so much better. I never really warmed to Kane, I probably never will, particularly after that recent interview, but you say it as you see it and he controlled the game for us yesterday making pass after pass to a teammate and looking very good.
Connell is the key for us. Best midfielder in the league. Doubt we’ll see him for a long time though and that’s a big blow to our hopes. No way would Pompey have given us the run around first half on Tuesday if he’d have been playing.
