Danny Murphy has suggested that Pep Guardiola has not been convinced by Kalvin Phillips during his time at Manchester City.
The 27-year-old recently shared his hopes of playing more regularly for the Citizens next season having only started four games across their recent treble-winning campaign.
This has quickly led to one former Premier League midfielder sharing his thoughts on the matter.
Murphy claims Guardiola isn’t convinced by Phillips
Speaking on talkSPORT, Murphy said this about Phillips and why he didn’t have that many minutes in the team last season.
He said: “I like him, I think he’s a talented player, he’s an intelligent footballer but is he capable of going another step? Which is why they bought him, City probably felt, ‘we can see something in him and we can elevate him to a better player that suits us,’ and I think the truth behind it is that Pep’s trained with him, watched him and thought ‘no.’”
Taking a deeper look at Phillips’ debut season at the Etihad Stadium following his £45m move from Leeds United last summer, the England international started two Premier League games, both of which came after City were officially crowned champions.
He also started their 3-0 win over Bristol City in the FA Cup and their 2-0 defeat to Southampton in the Carabao Cup.
Other than that, the majority of his 21 appearances saw him come off the substitutes bench.
While injury problems, and fitness issues, as Guardiola was not shy in pointing out back in December, impacted the first half of 27-year-old’s campaign, he still wasn’t really able to find himself a regular place in the starting XI.
This suggests that Murphy’s point about the City boss not being totally convinced by the midfielder’s ability could well be correct.
Moving forward, given Phillips’ determination to have a better second season with the Citizens next time out, he’ll have a lot of work to do in pre-season and throughout the campaign to assure his manager that he has what it takes to be a prominent player in the team.
