Tottenham are having to make some serious changes to their team right now.
With so many players out injured or suspended, Ange Postecoglou is having to find new solutions in key positions to keep his team ticking over.
Last week against Aston Villa, Postecoglou decided that his best bet was to use both Emerson Royal and Ben Davies, two full-backs by trade, at centre-halves.
Of course, that didn’t go too well as Spurs slumped to defeat against Villa, and there has been talk of another defensive reshuffle.
Ashley Phillips is one player who could be considered to start for Tottenham, but according to David Howells, speaking on The Spurs Show Podcast, it would be a massive risk to throw Phillips into the side at this point as he’d likely have to play alongside someone like Eric Dier.
Using Ashley Phillips would be a risk
Howells gave his verdict on the ‘phenomenal’ defender.
“If you were to say let’s put Ashley Phillips into that centre-half pairing now and I would assume he’d play alongside Eric Dier, and Eric hasn’t played a lot, it’s a big risk,” Howells said.
MORE TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STORIES
Unfair to play Phillips against Man City
It has to be said that it would be very unfair to hand Phillips his Premier League debut this weekend.
The 18-year-old would be well and truly fed to the wolves if he was thrown in for his first Premier League start against the treble-winning champions of Europe.
Imagine being a teenager having to play your first Premier League game and the man you’re tasked with marking is Erling Haaland, you’d be put off ever playing again.
Phillips could be an emergency option for Spurs going forward, but he needs to be slowly introduced to the side and this level of football, not thrown in at the deep end.