Helping the Foxes to the Sky Bet Championship title last year, the former Southampton forward praised the variety and work ethic of his colleagues and believes getting the correct balance across the team is the reason for City’s impressive start.
Capped by England eight times, Phillips has had lengthy career spanning over two decades, and is the only Englishman ever to have won the European Golden Boot award, scoring 30 goals for Sunderland in the 1999/2000 season to secure the prestigious accolade.
Admitting he’d still love to be on the pitch as a player, Phillips is grateful for the welcoming he has received by everyone at the Club and is hopeful his experience can rub off on the players in order to help them stay in the Barclays Premier League.
Speaking exclusively to Foxes Player, he said: “It’s different – first and foremost in the first few weeks it was trying to get used to the long hours!
“I’m growing in to it, I’m enjoying it. It obviously helps with the team doing very well – the atmosphere in the coaches’ room and in and around the ground is excellent.
“I can’t say enough about Nigel and the staff – they’ve been excellent to me. It’s very new to me and they’ve basically just let me get on with what I need to get on with.
“As time goes on I’ll get more and more involved with the whole squad and I’ll gain more experience.
“It’s been great on match days because Nigel has kept me involved on the touch line.
“I haven’t missed playing as much as I thought I would in training and certainly match days.
“When you see the players scoring five against Manchester United there’s a part of me that wants to be out there but I know that’s never going to happen.”
Phillips is part of a coaching team with a wealth of experience and believes that the structure at City is one that will be very productive given that every position has a coach dedicated to it.
He continued: “I think football nowadays is gearing towards specialised coaches.
“You’ve seen Teddy Sheringham go in as a striker coach at West Ham and I’ve obviously come here.
“We’ve got Mike Stowell here who does a lot with the defence and Nigel is obviously an ex-defender and Shakey does it with the midfield.
“We have sessions and days where we’ll split up – I’ll take the strikers and Shakey and Stowelly will take the defence and midfield.
“That’s certainly helps and I think it shows this season – the lads know what their jobs are.
“They’re very disciplined and I think that helps and that shows from the work we’re doing on the training pitch.”
Reflecting on his time training as a youngster at Southampton, Phillips encouraged the development of the Academy’s players through involvement with City’s first team.
He added: “I remember when I was an apprentice as a 16-year-old when I used to get asked to come train with the first team I couldn’t wait.
“I was nervous but you want to test yourself against the best and see how they train and see how they conduct themselves.
“That can only help you as a player and if you don’t learn from that you don’t deserve to be in the game.
“We have Under-21 teams now and they quite often come across and train against us – we’ll have matches against them and that will help their development.”