Phil could be set for Blues breakthrough
PEP Guardiola and his City team will return to Premier League action on Wednesday night.
They enter the restart in a strange state. The Champions League, their ultimate goal, is not expected to recommence until August, with travel restrictions across Europe still in place. The current resumption focuses solely on the domestic schedule.
Of course, for City, this lessens the value and significance of the games. They are 25 points behind Liverpool. Even with their game-inhand, a home game against Arsenal which will kick off Project Restart, Liverpool need just two wins from nine matches to secure the Premier League title.
City are also comfortably in the top four. They are 12 points clear of United in fifth, and would extend that gap to 15 with victory over Arsenal.
So until European football recommences, the only matches of true significance for City come in the FA Cup, which is expected to be intertwined with the Premier League schedule, culminating in an August 1 final.
City face Newcastle United in the quarter-finals and will be looking to defend their crown.
This leaves 10 Premier League fixtures that have little significance or value to this season. City cannot win the league. They also cannot drop out of the Champions League places, which is still important amid the appeal against their two-year ban from UEFA competition.
Therefore, this represents the ideal time for Guardiola to experiment with his team and plan for next season and beyond.
Take David Silva and Phil Foden as an example. Guardiola has repeatedly praised Foden’s ability, and the academy product seems destined to take Silva’s place in midfield when the Spaniard departs at the end of the season. Guardiola said as much this year.
“Phil is an incredible player but he still has things to improve,” he said in January. “Sometimes it takes time to understand exactly what he has to do. Sometimes you have to be patient. But David is going to leave this season [and] we are not going to buy any player in his position because we have Phil.”
Foden has played north of 1,000 minutes for City this season, but only 354 have come in the Premier League. The majority came in the FA Cup and League Cup.
Of the 14 league appearances he has made, 11 came from the bench, and despite his obvious ability, given his lack of experience, expecting him to replace Silva is a little ambitious.
Guardiola, then, has the perfect chance to hand Foden a run of starts in the heart of the City midfield.
That way he can play regularly, make mistakes, learn from his performances, develop an understanding with his team-mates – especially Kevin de Bruyne – and get a better grasp of the responsibilities of the role he will perform in Silva’s absence. In essence, Foden can prepare himself for the task at hand.
But these are processes that only come with the opportunity to play. It is difficult to develop a bond with a team-mate without playing alongside them. Guardiola can instruct Foden with the individual tasks he
must execute on the pitch as much as he wants, but the youngster will only truly learn how to master them by doing.
Thus far, he has not had the opportunity to learn and grow on the pitch. But now, with the decreased importance of City’s matches, he can play without worrying too much about the consequences and better prepare himself for what will be a crucial 2020/21 campaign. This same logic extends to other areas of the squad. At centre-back, Guardiola could attempt to rekindle the best version of John Stones once again, starting him alongside Aymeric Laporte in the hope that they can form a partnership that enters next season on a strong footing.
Joao Cancelo could be further eased into the team at right-back.
Gabriel Jesus can stake his claim as Sergio Aguero’s natural successor at centre-forward, and why not experiment at leftback using Oleksandr Zinchenko and Benjamin Mendy? It is a position that City could address in the summer, so wouldn’t it be useful to know how capable the current options are?
It also applies to Guardiola himself. He can experiment with different tactical set-ups, including a back three or the double half-nine shape that he used against Real Madrid in the Champions League.
He has the opportunity to amend players’ roles and see if it provides the team with that crucial marginal edge that has been lacking this season.
There is no pressure on the team. The results are relatively insignificant, so Guardiola has an unlikely opportunity to test, experiment, change and alter as he sees fit.
He would be wise to take it.