Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has revealed that Phil Foden is a doubt for the club’s clash with Crystal Palace at the Etihad Stadium this weekend.
The versatile playmaker was withdrawn early in the second-half of last weekend’s drab 0-0 draw with Manchester United, replaced by Jeremy Doku and leaving the Old Trafford surface with a visible limp.
That knock was carried through until after the full-time whistle too, with those present at the stadium noticing Foden heading down the Manchester United tunnel with the same limp, leaving question marks over his fitness this week.
Also included in the second-half of the Manchester City manager’s press conference, held back until Friday evening, is an opening viewpoint from Pep Guardiola on the arrival of Hugo Viana into the City Football Academy.
The club’s incoming sporting director, due to replace Txiki Begiristain after the summer’s FIFA Club World Cup, began working full-time on Monday in what is being viewed as a transitional handover period from an official who has spent the last 12 seasons at the Etihad Stadium.
Following the release of part two of Pep Guardiola’s Crystal Palace preview press conference, here is every single word from the Manchester City manager on a number of talking points on Friday afternoon!
On what can be done to get Phil Foden back to his levels from 2023/24
“We will try all of us to help him, absolutely. We will try.
(And do you talk to him about this, personally?) “Yeah.
(And his response?) “If the team would have played better, he will play better. The reason why he was not good is – a hypothetical player that you can choose – OK, we’ll sell him. Problems are gone. It’s not about that! So the team plays better, you know, the individual players lift.
“There are a few players in the world that for himself can lift the team, and we don’t have a few. I would say. So we have to be as a team, understand what you have to do defensively, spirit, offensively, our patterns that we had that in the past always were so precise, and then this season we struggled.
“The last game was a big example. And this is what I try to recover in this seven games, plus the FA Cup, plus the (FIFA Club) World Cup, and after, of course next season.”
On his ‘need to move less’ comments after the 0-0 draw vs Manchester United
“It’s so simple; when you ...
