Pep Guardiola reveals detals of private Phil Foden chat that sparked brilliant Man City form
Pep Guardiola commended Phil Foden’s assertiveness and shared details about a personal conversation he had with the young player following Manchester City’s victory over Newcastle in the Premier League.
Despite Newcastle’s recent struggles and a previous encounter where they gave City trouble, City remained the league’s strongest defensive team.
Manchester City delivered a proficient performance, scoring at opportune moments with goals from Foden and Silva, securing a significant win to keep Arsenal on alert in the title race. Foden’s recent goal in this match marked his fourth goal in three appearances, and he is regaining his top form for City.
Foden acknowledged that being sidelined and out of the team was the most challenging experience of his career so far, following his impressive showing at Bristol City earlier in the week. However, Guardiola revealed that he advised Foden to stay positive and anticipate similar challenging periods in the future.
“Phil has the special ability to have the ball, where is the goal, and go there to attack with the ball, without the ball,” Guardiola said.
“But when I spoke with Phil during the year when the moments he had the ball he passed back, you feel you don’t have the confidence to do it and it is normal. [I said] ‘What happens to you Phil it’s absolutely what should happen.’ He arrives 17 years old training with us, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes here, the national team, World Cup, European Cup, winning titles and every year he was a little bit better than the year before.
“Then arrives a moment you go down. Okay accept it, the struggle with his ankle, accept it. They are the most important things. Don’t blame the other ones, the opponent or the manager or the club or the mates. Accept I can do better and come back to the principles. Step by step they will be back and now scoring goals.
“In that moment Riyad in the last two months had been one of the most important players up front, he won the game against Spurs. Every action of him, create actions for the opponents, for Erling, for Kevin for Gundo for everyone. What happened with Phil is completely normal. Accept it. I said: ‘The bad moments, this too shall pass.’ Always like this, in 90 minutes, the bad moments this too shall pass, always will come. Come back to the game and be ready in that moment to do it.”
Guardiola was impressed by Foden’s intensity during the Newcastle match, particularly his ability to take on four defenders and score with a deflected shot.
“After we get the goal, a brilliant action from Phil, a lucky with the deflection but was aggressive from Phil,” he said. “We messed that a little this season. It doesn’t matter what happens, ‘I go against you’. When that happens, always a deflection comes for your side. The second half we start well, they have the momentum and break the game up and downs.
“The game is so anxious so that is why we decide to put Bernardo to make our possessions longer. We needed to keep the ball, his intuition to make our high press and take the balls in the middle and go down between the legs. He has this incredible ability. It was an incredibly good result for us.”
Pep Guardiola reveals detals of private Phil Foden chat that sparked brilliant Man City form
