FODEN’S READY
Injury crisis means Pep can throw teen in at deep end
ShAKING his head and tightening an imagined noose when asked about styles of play and Jose Mourinho, it did not feel as if Pep Guardiola could become any more unequivocal last night.
But then the topic of Phil Foden was broached. Manchester City are in Lyon amid a midfield injury crisis, with no Ilkay Gundogan, Kevin De Bruyne or Bernardo Silva. With options limited, it must now be time for the 18-yearold to be thrown into the deep end for a game that really does matter. Victory means City would qualify and top the group. To do that with Foden alongside David Silva and Fernandinho would be some statement.
‘Phil’s definitely ready,’ Guardiola said. ‘he played 20 minutes in the last game (at West ham) and was so aggressive with the ball and intense without it.’
This would surely be the biggest night of Foden’s short career should Guardiola give him the shirt. he has started two Carabao Cup games and the Community Shield so far this season, otherwise impressing from the bench but without a sense of responsibility. his only start in the Champions League came in a dead rubber at Shakhtar Donetsk last year and that was at left wing-back.
A new six-year contract is ready to be signed and seeing his name etched on City’s team sheet tonight would act as a sizeable vote of confidence. Foden’s emergence as someone who Guardiola believes can be trusted is nowhere near completion but started in Miami five months ago during victory over Bayern Munich.
‘When Phil appeared in the last pre-season game I was incredibly impressed and I think he’s stronger and more conscious that he’s able to play with us,’ Guardiola said. ‘In pre-season or during the season, a few minutes or 90 minutes, he always plays good.’
Guardiola told his players he was ‘embarrassed’ by them after losing the home fixture with Lyon in September and there is a sense they want to settle some scores.
The Catalan accepts that the money lavished by Sheik Mansour will serve as ammunition for their detractors should they not go deep in this competition.
Certainly there must be an improvement on reaching the quarter-finals.
‘For all the people who don’t love us too much, their argument is the money, of course. If we don’t win the Champions League we have failed,’ Guardiola conceded.
If they are to eventually win the Champions League, Guardiola wants to do so with panache. That, for him, is made more possible if they are tested in the group stages. It has happened this time, even if they are aiming to finish with 15 points.
‘Nobody has the guarantee to play in one way and you will win the Champions League,’ he said. ‘If we play defensive or the way we play, there are no guarantees.
‘Our job is to convince our players about our way and then we have to adapt and every game we do that.’