Kalvin Phillips has shared some details regarding his playing time at Manchester City last season and how he felt throughout the campaign.
The 27-year-old started four of the 21 games he appeared in last season since arriving from Leeds United last summer in a deal worth £45m.
With his second season just a couple of weeks away from starting, the Englishman has spoken out about his debut campaign with the Citizens and how he felt about his game time.
Phillips says he wasn’t happy with game time at City
Speaking in a recent episode of the Unfiltered podcast, Phillips said this about his playing time last season and how he reacted at certain times due to the lack of minutes he was getting.
He said: “At the start of the season when I was injured, it didn’t really cross my mind and then when I was coming back to fitness and still not playing, it kind of went through a patch where I was really struggling and I wasn’t in a great mood.
“Maybe I’d go out to training and not do my best because I was [angry] at something or felt like I could have been involved or whatever.
“Ultimately at the end of the day, it’s the manager’s decision so you’ve just got to keep going, keep your head down, keep working hard.”
As the midfielder mentioned, injuries had a big impact on his availability throughout the first half of the season.
Then, questions were raised about his fitness after Pep Guardiola said to the media that he wasn’t happy with the state he was in after returning from the World Cup in Qatar with England.
In the second half of the campaign, Phillips then found himself more involved in the team, featuring in seven of City’s final 10 Premier League games of the season, completing the full 90 minutes in the two he started against Chelsea and Brentford.
While he may have been frustrated about his lack of game time at certain stages of the season, it’s good to hear him say that he has to work hard to get more minutes, which shows that he has the right mindset to succeed at the Etihad Stadium.
Having said that he wouldn’t have put his best in during training at times last term, it’s positive that he knows this isn’t the way to convince the manager that he has what it takes to play and play regularly.
