BBC insists Phil Neville will continue to play a ‘key role’ in World Cup despite 445 complaints

The BBC has said that Phil Neville is a “well-respected member of our team” and will “continue to play a key role throughout the tournament”, despite hundreds of complaints about Neville’s commentary style.The former England international was described as being ‘monotone’ and sounding ‘like a dot matrix printer’ by members of the public on Twitter, while the South Warwickshire Police suggested playing Neville’s voice to keep the streets ‘calm and sleepy’.

will be playing recordings of Phil Neville all night to keep the streets all calm and sleepy. Remember respect residents #KnowYourLimit

— Policing South Warks (@SWarksCops) June 14, 2014

A BBC spokeswoman said that 445 complaints were received after Saturday night's game, which pulled in a peak audience of 15.6m viewers.Neville is expected to be a studio guest for tonight's game between Iran and Nigeria, which will take place at 8pm.He took to Twitter himself to say that the criticism “will only make me better”.

1st live co-comm last night-sometimes u have to take the criticism - it will only make me better- thanks for the feedback(ahhahaha)!

— Philip Neville (@fizzer18) June 15, 2014