Gareth Southgate assesses Leeds United's Kalvin Phillips performance alongside Declan Rice in England's draw with Denmark

The England boss fielded debutant Phillips and Rice alongside one another as defensive midfielders in a new formation, in front of a back three.

Phillips, accustomed to sitting alone in defensive midfield to provide cover for the backline and to help dictate the play, was unable to contribute much more than a pair of crunching tackles and aerial dominance in a first half that produced little in the way of cohensive football from England.

When he did receive the ball he was, more often than not, forced to send it back towards the centre-half trio in what was a disjointed first 45 minutes for the visitors in Copenhagen, although he enjoyed more involvement than midfield partner Rice.

After the break the 24-year-old was able to show much more of the passing ability that benefitted Leeds so significantly en route to promotion.

England boss Gareth Southgate, who replaced Phillips with Jack Grealish late on, said his side would improve in the new system.

"We've learned a lot, we tried a new system which we will get better at," he said.

"Given everything we've had to deal with, 10 pull outs for various reasons, we felt we wanted to start with stability. We could have probably been a little higher in terms of our attacking in put in the first half. It wasn't a game where we were going to be able to press as high for 90 minutes.

"In the second half we started to accelerate the game with some of the changes, we felt we were in control. Putting Mason [Mount] on made us a little more forward thinking."

Rice and Phillips took time to find their feet in the system, said the England boss, who pointed out that the Leeds man is in his very first week of involvement with the national squad and both are in the midst of preparations for a new season.

"We're still learning a lot about Kalvin," he said.

"For 15 minutes it took them both a little bit to get going, they're both in pre-season. It gave us stability. We made the change to be a bit more forward thinking."

Speaking before the game Southgate said he felt privileged to be able to give Phillips and Wolves man Conor Coady their international debuts.

“I was fortunate to hand two players their first England shirt today,” he said.

“We just talked a little bit about what the badge means, what the requirements are, how you’ve to leave that shirt in a better place than you’ve found it and they know the responsibility that comes with it but also the privilege of playing for your country.

“I am particularly pleased for Conor and Kalvin who have had a longer wait than a lot of the players we have capped in the past so it possibly means even more to them.”

Southgate felt the duo needed little in the way of motivational talk beforehand because he deems them both able and ready to contribute to international football.

“We didn’t need to talk too much about it, I don’t need to build the game up in their minds, they are both more than capable of playing at this level and it’s a case of giving them the belief that they can go and perform as they do every week for their clubs,” he said.

Phillips is now in line for a Premier League debut at Liverpool on Saturday.