Phil Foden starts on the bench for Man City’s trip to Crystal Palace (Shutterstock)
Pep Guardiola insists he needs to manage Phil Foden’s playing time after deciding to drop the midfielder for Manchester City’s Premier League clash against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Foden has been in sublime form for City this season and scored a hat-trick in the 4-1 win against Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday evening.
However, the 23-year-old drops to the bench for City’s trip to Selhurst Park, while Erling Haaland, who was rested against Villa, returns to the starting XI for Saturday’s early kick-off.
When asked if it was a difficult decision to bench Foden for City’s game against Palace, Guardiola conceded he is wary of over-playing the England international ahead of his side’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Real Madrid on Tuesday evening.
‘It was difficult but not just him,’ Guardiola told TNT Sports about his decision to drop Foden.
‘All the guys… as a manager when you don’t allow players to play, my decisions are always tough, always.
Erling Haaland returns to the starting XI for Man City’s trip to Crystal Palace (Shutterstock)
‘But we have a lot of games, look at the game Phil played against Arsenal, 96 minutes, friendly games with the national team and he could not move.
‘So it’s a lot of games, that’s why we decided with that, I’ll tell you something, if we win it’ll be ‘great decision’, and if we lose, ‘why did you do that?’.’
CRYSTAL PALACE VS MAN CITY
CRYSTAL PALACE: Henderson, Ward, Mitchell, Lerma, Ayew, Eze, Munoz, Mateta, Anderson, Hughes, Wharton.
SUBS: Matthews, Tomkins, Olise, Schlupp, Clyne, Edouard, Ahamada, Ozoh, Umeh-Chibueze.
MAN CITY: Ortega, Lewis, Stones, Dias, Gvardiol, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Bobb, Alvarez, Grealish, Haaland
SUBS: Ederson, Kovacic, Doku, Bernardo, Gomez, Akanji, Nunes, Foden, Susoho
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Asked if he has considered playing Foden and Kevin De Bruyne together, Guardiola replied: ‘Yeah, definitely.
‘I thought a lot about letting them play. After [the game against Crystal Palace] we arrive back early to Manchester, but tomorrow we travel to Madrid.
‘Madrid haven’t played in the last nine days, so we need to have players fresh.
‘I would love to have Phil on the pitch, I’m not stupid, I’d like to see him, but it’s a lot of games, a lot of players, and that’s why I decided that.’
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