West Ham forward Michail Antonio has shared exactly why he thinks Kalvin Phillips is struggling so badly.
Michail Antonio has been out injured for a while and only returned to action for West Ham last Saturday, so he will certainly understand how hard it has been for Kalvin Phillips to get up to speed.
The 28-year-old midfielder is currently on loan at the London Stadium, and his form has been so bad for us that he allegedly will not be called up by Gareth Southgate for his next England squad.
Hammers boss David Moyes probably shouldn’t have thrown Phillips in from the start against Bournemouth at the start of the month – he’s clearly nowhere near up to speed just yet.
It went from bad to worse for Kalvin last weekend when he received a red card during our clash with Forest at the City Ground, and he’ll now miss our next game as a result.
Antonio has opened up on how Phillips’ lack of football recently is affecting his ability to succeed with West Ham…
Michail Antonio shares why he thinks Kalvin Phillips is struggling
Antonio has been speaking on the Footballers’ Football Podcast about Phillips’s start to life at the London Stadium.
And the 33-year-old thinks he knows exactly why the 28-year-old is having such a tough time right now:
“The guy’s not played for a year and a half, so you’ve got to expect mistakes, you’ve got to expect a player being rusty, you’ve got to expect him trying to get up to the speed of the Prem [Premier League] because he’s not played for a year and a half. So, these things are bound to happen. It’s a good thing that it’s happening now and it’s not happening at the end of the season because once it’s happening at the end, then there’s certain things you can actually say about him as a player. But right now, he’s getting it now and early because all the rust, he needs to get rid of that so he can bring out the quality that he has.”
I mean, Phillips has played over the past 18 months, but I think Antonio just means that he has barely started any games for Manchester City.
Before his first start for the Hammers this month, he hadn’t started a Premier League game since May! It’s little wonder why he’s so far off the pace really isn’t it!
I reckon Kalvin Phillips will come good sooner rather than later, and I’m hoping that Michail Antonio will as well!
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