Pep Guardiola is currently without several Manchester City players in pre-season.
Manchester City are almost halfway through their trip to the United States and have already played a few games.
Manchester City have lost to Celtic and AC Milan, although results don’t really matter at the moment. Especially when so many key players are still out.
Those who had a good run at Euro 2024 and the Copa America have not yet returned. Only Mateo Kovacic and Josko Gvardiol have managed it so far.
This gave Pep an insight into a number of the club’s young and fringe players.
And one man who has featured in both games so far is Kalvin Phillips. Phillips has continued to struggle since returning to City from his loan spell at West Ham, drawing criticism for his performances against Celtic and Milan.
City’s next game is tonight against Barcelona – and Phillips did something rather interesting during a training exercise yesterday.
Kalvin Phillips and Josko Gvardiol formed a central defensive duo during Manchester City training
Pre-season is always fascinating when it comes to games where key players are absent.
This means that managers are happy to experiment and often players end up playing roles they are not really familiar with.
Phillips has not had good results against Celtic or Milan.
But given the lack of players on this tour, he is set to feature again against Barcelona – and Pep may well throw him a real curveball.
The Manchester Evening News reported that City were working on their defensive shape during a training session yesterday – and that Phillips was operating as a centre-back, alongside Josko Gvardiol.
Josh Wilson-Esbrand played as a left-back, while Rico Lewis moved to the right.
Nico O’Reilly and Mateo Kovacic operated as defensive midfielders.
Phillips actually played as a centre-back in his first pre-season, with City having no other senior options available at the time.
The MEN claim that during the drills, Phillips “was asked to push towards midfield during the press, while the back four adapted to a three-man defence to cover.”
Will Phillips play a hybrid role against Barcelona?
Phillips has failed to prove himself as a defensive midfielder for City, so this is quite a fascinating development.
John Stones has popularised the hybrid role in recent times. The England international makes it look easy, but it is actually a complex role. So it will be fascinating to see Phillips try his hand at it if the plan is indeed to use him in this role.
He just didn’t look comfortable as a defensive midfielder when playing for City.
But maybe Pep is right. Phillips was caught too high up the pitch against Celtic and seeing him play a hybrid role could, in theory, prevent that from happening.
Related topics
