Gareth Southgate sends playing time warning to Man United captain Harry Maguire and Man City star Kalvin Phillips

Gareth Southgate has warned Manchester United captain Harry Maguire and Manchester City midfielder Kalvin Phillips potentially face “hard” competition for their England places amid their lack of club game time.

Maguire started just 16 games last season, of which just eight came in the Premier League. Meanwhile, Phillips only started his first Premier League game for City after they had won the title, starting in the 1-0 win over Chelsea in May. He made just four starts in all competitions, having missed nearly three months at the start of the season due to a shoulder injury.

Both Phillips and Maguire were included in Southgate’s England squad for this month’s Euro2024 qualifying wins over Malta and North Macedonia. Maguire started both matches while Phillips played 30 minutes as a substitute in the 7-0 thrashing of the latter on Monday.

Speaking afterwards, Southgate admitted that both players are at risk of losing their spots amid a lack of domestic game time given the competition for places.

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He said: “Harry is captain of an incredible football club so that is a difficult situation, he will obviously be frustrated not to play as much as he would like but I think he has handled that really well, he has publicly talked well about supporting the team.

“It is clear, really. I think Harry and Kalvin are the two who have played the least in terms of guys in this squad this season but we have gone with them because in these two positions we think they are still ahead of others that might have played more.

“But it is then hard when that competition gets more even and you are not playing regularly to see their form, see their fitness so that is the