After the team news was released before Tuesday’s fourth-round Carabao Cup tie against Liverpool, there were many frowns when Kalvin Philips’s name wasn’t in the squad. After all, this is a player who has been injured for three months, called up to England’s World Cup squad and only featured for forty minutes altogether. For City this season, the former Leeds man has only featured in just 53 minutes of football in all competitions, safe to say his time at the club hasn’t been the most successful so far. Many fans feared the defensive midfielder may have suffered yet another injury setback, however the real for the absence of Philips is much more damming.
According to boss Pep Guardiola, the real reason Philips wasn’t in the squad to face Liverpool was due to the 27-year-old’s weight. Speaking in his post-match press conference to the Daily Mail and @MailSport via @JackGaughan after the Liverpool victory, the Spaniard said the following: “He’s not injured – he arrived [back] overweight. I don’t know [why]. He didn’t arrive in the condition to do training sessions and to play.”
City’s number four now faces a race to regain his fitness and more importantly his manager’s trust, as City’s next game is at Elland Road against Philips’s former club Leeds United, with the £42 million summer signing surely desperate to show his face at the club that made him the player he is today.
Looking onward, due to the strenuous schedule of games every three days facing City from now until May, the club hope Philips can return to full sharpness in order to give Rodri a rest when needed, and maybe even start alongside the Spaniard in a pivot in a potential 4-2-3-1, or even in a more advanced role where the ‘Yorkshire Pirlo’ can show off his incredible passing range.
Whatever the story will be regarding Kalvin Philips and his time with Manchester City, the first five months haven’t started how he would have hoped.