Kalvin Phillips endures nightmare start to life at West Ham as he inadvertently set up Dominic Solanke to score Bournemouth opener inside three minutes… but was the goal his fault or Kurt Zouma’s?

Kalvin Phillips was at the centre of the mess which led to Bournemouth‘s opener just three minutes into his West Ham debut, though fans are aren’t convinced he was the player at fault. 

The midfielder was featuring in his first game for the Hammers since his loan move from Manchester City but endured a nightmare start during Premier League clash on Thursday night. 

Phillips received a pass from Kurt Zouma on the edge of the area, however the French defender had not accounted for the oncoming Ryan Christie, who had pressed his new teammate. 

In his effort to recover the situation, Phillips inadvertently played in Dominic Solanke before the striker calmly tucked past Alphonse Areola to give the Cherries the lead. 

To add insult to injury, Solanke had been in an offside position, meaning that the goal would have been ruled out if Christie’s was the last touch. 

Despite being at the centre of the mix up, fans on social media were largely united in their opinion that the England international did not shoulder the majority of the blame, though, his involvement after enduring a torrid spell at the Etihad was less than ideal. 

‘Not his fault,’ said one matter of fact user on X, formerly Twitter.  Another commented: ‘Anything for clicks, Phillips could do nothing with that hospital pass. 

‘That’s on Zouma, atrocious pass,’ said another. Another user wrote: Zouma took too long on the ball, pass should have been earlier to him.’ 

Lots of fans on social media came to the defence of the midfielder after the incident which led to Bournemouth’s early goal

Phillips completed a loan move to David Moyes’s side last week after failing to win the trust of Pep Guardiola, resulting in limited game time since his move from Leeds in 2022. 

Though favoured by England boss Gareth Southgate, the midfielder’s position in the national team was under threat ahead of the European Championship in Germany this summer. 

Former Liverpool winger and TNT Sports commentator Steve McManaman was less sympathetic and pointed to his lack of match sharpness. 

‘You need to play.’ He said. ‘There’s not much opportunities to play in reserve games these days it’s U21 games.

‘If you’re not playing for the first team a lot of the time you’re not playing at all. Yes you can organise behind closed door games but they’re not the same.’