Pep Guardiola isn’t afraid to tell it how it is, but one of his public criticisms of a player was difficult for the player to take since he believed his manager’s evaluation to be unreliable.
Kalvin Phillips was acquired by Manchester City for £50 million from Leeds United, yet his rookie campaign with the treble-winning squad can be overlooked as if it never happened.
Despite not having played much, he was selected for England’s World Cup squad. However, because of an injury he was still nursing in Qatar, he was only able to play for 35 minutes, casting doubt on his invitation.
Phillips rejects Guardiola’s criticism
According to Football365, Pep Guardiola was not too impressed with how the midfielder turned up ‘overweight’ at the club’s training facilities after the tournament in Qatar.
“I’d probably say it was a little bit hard to take just because of how much it was oversized and how many people started talking about it,” he said.
“I know obviously the manager made his comments and stuff like that, and I respected them because I did come back and I – I wasn’t overweight for me, but the manager has seen it in a very different way.”
He returned to the bench for the game against his former club after missing the FA Cup game against Chelsea and was available for all games afterwards.
“I did my best to try to get as fit as possible… It was just one of those things where there was just a misunderstanding between me and some staff members.”
Pirlo rejects Phillips’ comparison
Sports Brief reported that Italian legend, Andrea Pirlo rejected comparisons to Phillips, who is famously dubbed after him in Leeds.
He is dubbed the Yorkshire Pirlo in his hometown even though the former Juventus manager is not in agreement as he found no similarities between them, although he did acknowledge him as a very good player.