Kalvin Phillips believes his time working under Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds United means he would be 'comfortable' if England changed formation for Saturday's World Cup quarter-final with France. England have operated solely with a back four during the tournament in Qatar so far, enabling the Three Lions to get more midfielders and attackers on the pitch.
But 4-3-3 has not been a system Gareth Southgate has used too regularly during his stint as England boss, particularly in major tournaments. Southgate has predominantly gone with a 5-2-3 in the past with Phillips alongside Rice in a flat midfield partnership which helped England to the final of the EUROs last year.
Whether Southgate reverts back to that system against World Champions France on Saturday is a question that still remains up in the air as England look to cope with the threat of Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and company. Speaking to the press on Thursday afternoon ahead of the game, Phillips believes he would have no problems in making the transition given his experience of changing systems during a game under Bielsa.
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He said: "I think for me when I played at Leeds I played under a manager that changed formation all the time, every 15 minutes. I was quite used to changing formation and obviously I played in that deeper number four role.
"I did change positions quite a lot, I played centre half and stuff like that so I feel like if that happened during a game or if we needed to change formation I'd be very comfortable doing it."
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