Blues boss Kieran McKenna says on-loan midfielder Kalvin Phillips is settling in well at Portman Road ahead of Saturday’s return to his former loan club West Ham United, where he had a less than happy spell last season.
Phillips, 28, made a season-long switch to the Portman Road in the summer having been unable to break into the team at City following his £42 million move to the Etihad Stadium in July 2022.
He had a similarly demoralising spell with West Ham in the second half of last season, making only three starts and seven sub appearances and falling out with the Hammers faithful with matters coming to a head when he raised a middle finger to an abusive fan as he got on the team bus.
But life at Portman Road has started positively with the England international yet to taste defeat in the Premier League for the Blues, his three starts having all ended in draws. Speaking earlier today, the former Leeds man said he is enjoying life at Portman Road.
"Kalvin Phillips is settling in well and he’s enjoying it day-to-day here,” McKenna said. "He is getting fitter and every performance from him has probably been a bit stronger than the last.
"It doesn’t always work like that and it’s not always a perfect line, but we feel if he can keep working as he is, then he has a chance to work himself up to some really good form.
"He’s been important to us. Over the last few years, we have generally played with a double pivot, maybe one midfielder with more flexibility, but a lot of the time it is two midfielders who play close together. And him and Samy [Morsy] have done that well in the last couple of games, as has Massimo [Luongo, Jens [Cajuste] and Jack Taylor as well.
"And we have also seen the importance of having two combative midfielders who break up play in front of our backline well. We like to be very aggressive in our backline and often we will have full backs jumping into high pressure on the opposition so having combative midfielders who can protect the backline whenever we are pressing high is very important.
"Again that is one of Kalvin’s big, big strengths – he is very good in front of the back four. He breaks up play really well and he is very mobile in those situations and reads danger well.
"He and Samy have given us a good platform in the couple of games they’ve played together.
"But, again, Massimo has been terrific in that over the last couple of years, Jens did some really good work against Southampton and Jack Taylor is going from strength to strength every weekend. That midfield unit is in a good place.”
McKenna says he’s not spoken to much with the Leeds-born schemer about his return to West Ham.
"Not massively,” he said. "It was a pretty short period in a relatively long career. I don’t know the ins and outs of it, I’m sure he would have liked to have played a little bit more.
"I do know that January loan moves when you’re not playing very much before you arrive, the percentage chance of that working out in terms of the perception of working out being starting every week, playing 90 minutes every week, it very, very often doesn’t work like that because it’s very hard to catch up in-season with teammates or competing players, who are 90-minute fit in the Premier League.
"That’s no big rare occurrence in football but he’s with us now, I think he’s happy here, we’re happy with him.
"Of course, he’ll know a few of their team, which will hopefully will be helpful to him in the game.
"Ben Johnson, of course, knows a lot of their team and I’m sure will be excited to go back for the game as well.
"And I think all the other players who don’t have links with West Ham will be excited for it as well.
"It’s geographically a pretty close game, it’s a pretty unique stadium against a team who have been competitive in the Premier League now for a number of years and have signed a lot of very good players this summer.
"I know our players are going to be really, really keen to go down there and show what we can do.”
McKenna says Phillips, and the other members of his squad, are benefiting from the positive environment in and around the club.
"I think it’s massive for all our players, I have to say,” he said. "It’s noticed by the players, the support in the stadium has been fantastic, it’s been as good as at any time I’ve been here.
"It’s been an incredible atmosphere, I think the players are really feeling the support on matchdays.
"I’d say all the players who have come to the club over the last couple of years have really noticed the positive environment inside the club with the staff and the group that are here.
"And the positive environment around the town, around their daily lives here because people are so passionate about the club, they’re so positive about the direction of travel and how the last few years have been and so positive now to be seeing the club competing in the Premier League.
"And, of course, competing how we have been in the last couple of weeks also gives people and extra boost.
"I think that’s a great environment for any player to play in and I’ve spoken to all the players who came in about that before the summer, that this would be a fantastic place to play football this year, we believe.
"I think Kalvin’s hopefully feeling the benefit of that as many players are. A career’s never all smooth and every player has their ups and downs, so I think being in a supportive and positive environment and hopefully good staff and a great support base behind you, I think that can only help.”
Meanwhile, McKenna has backed Phillips’s midfield partner, skipper Sam Morsy, to manage situations such as Sunday’s where he is walking a yellow-card tightrope in games.
The Egyptian international was widely viewed to have been fortunate not to have received a second booking against Aston Villa and the 32-year-old has already amassed four bookings with a fifth leading to a one-match ban.
"Samy’s an experienced player and he plays with a really competitive edge, he always has done and it’s one of the strongest bits of his game,” McKenna said.
"In the last two and half years, he’s never been sent off for us and I think he’s really good at finding the balance in general in his game of being competitive and being aggressive but also knowing that keeping 11 players on the pitch is so, so important for us, especially in this division.
"I think Samy knows how to manage himself well and he’s an important player for us and will be important, hopefully, this weekend.”