Phil Foden injury concern and Hugo Viana first impressions – Every Word from part two of Pep Guardiola’s Crystal Palace preview press conference | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has revealed that Phil Foden is a doubt for the club’s clash with Crystal Palace at the Etihad Stadium this weekend.

The versatile playmaker was withdrawn early in the second-half of last weekend’s drab 0-0 draw with Manchester United, replaced by Jeremy Doku and leaving the Old Trafford surface with a visible limp.

That knock was carried through until after the full-time whistle too, with those present at the stadium noticing Foden heading down the Manchester United tunnel with the same limp, leaving question marks over his fitness this week.

Also included in the second-half of the Manchester City manager’s press conference, held back until Friday evening, is an opening viewpoint from Pep Guardiola on the arrival of Hugo Viana into the City Football Academy.

The club’s incoming sporting director, due to replace Txiki Begiristain after the summer’s FIFA Club World Cup, began working full-time on Monday in what is being viewed as a transitional handover period from an official who has spent the last 12 seasons at the Etihad Stadium.

Following the release of part two of Pep Guardiola’s Crystal Palace preview press conference, here is every single word from the Manchester City manager on a number of talking points on Friday afternoon!

On what can be done to get Phil Foden back to his levels from 2023/24

“We will try all of us to help him, absolutely. We will try.

(And do you talk to him about this, personally?) “Yeah.

(And his response?) “If the team would have played better, he will play better. The reason why he was not good is – a hypothetical player that you can choose – OK, we’ll sell him. Problems are gone. It’s not about that! So the team plays better, you know, the individual players lift.

“There are a few players in the world that for himself can lift the team, and we don’t have a few. I would say. So we have to be as a team, understand what you have to do defensively, spirit, offensively, our patterns that we had that in the past always were so precise, and then this season we struggled.

“The last game was a big example. And this is what I try to recover in this seven games, plus the FA Cup, plus the (FIFA Club) World Cup, and after, of course next season.”

On his ‘need to move less’ comments after the 0-0 draw vs Manchester United

“It’s so simple; when you move the ball, you move the opponent. And when you do move the opponent, you create the spaces to attack. And when that space is there to attack and is not occupied for the right players in the right positions, you cannot attack good.

(And what are some of the reasons for them not being in the right position?) “Because they are human beings, it happens, or maybe they don’t understand the silly manager, understand better. It happened many times. Maybe in the next games we’ll do perfectly, or there is another point that it doesn’t work…

“Listen, when I go to the press conference and the journalist asks me questions about that, it’s difficult for all the managers because in an instant they need to respond. Now I’m more relaxed, I reflect more, in that moment, it’s more difficult.

“But I had the feeling in that moment why we didn’t; sometimes it’s that reason, sometimes it’s we give away a lot of goals to the opponents, we miss a lot of chances. There are a thousand million reasons.

“But even with that, I will tell you now; even if we had applied a little bit better what I think, what the reason why, maybe we don’t win neither, or maybe we lose. So there are a lot of factors.

“But for our game, we’ve been working for many years, we try to move the opponent, it depends on defence and the way it happens there, you have to attack in different spaces, a little bit quicker and faster being in the position. And we were not. That’s all.”

On Nico Gonzalez’s time at Manchester City as a whole until now

“The impact from the new ones has been really good, even Vitor Reis for example, who didn’t play much; in training I’m impressed. I think it’s not easy when they come into an environment that – on the way we’re playing, the results are not good.

“Apart from Omar (Marmoush), we cannot deny that the impact he has in terms of goals. And Nico has played good, and I’m pretty sure when Rodri will come back just for imitating in the training sessions, he will learn a lot. He’s another guy who can understand many things.

“And he will get it because he listens, he’s so attentive, he’s incredibly focussed in his world – football, football, football. And that is, it’s really important. And the times he played, Brighton for example, the two goals, it was a transition. They regained the ball and we could score.

“So he has done many, many good things. With the ball he is another player who has to move less – I don’t like holding midfielders moving a lot, you have to be more small and calm in the position. But I’m pretty sure he will get it, he’s come for many years.

“And physicality and he wants to learn, he learns quick. So it’s going to happen.”

On whether that is part of the reason why he has missed recent away games

“No, I decided for the players for experience and maybe know better all the patterns. And after it didn’t happen, at (Manchester) United. I don’t have it in the mind. OK, ‘I want experienced players knowing exactly what you have to do, and the position, sometimes taking as much responsibility, some players’ – that’s all.

“But it’s not against him because Jeremy (Doku) had played awesome for many games recently, and didn’t play against United. So it’s not about being against any players particularly.”

On Hugo Viana starting at Manchester City this week

“Yeah, we talked… Comparing the relationship with Txiki (Begiristain), we are together since we played together in Barcelona. We were almost teenagers. So it’s a life, I would say we shared. But two relations never are the same.

“But what I know, I heard, and I experienced in a short time, it will be so easy to communicate and work together, so easy, in that terms. He’s a perfect replacement… The way he envisions and the football, the way we talk, and the composer that I think is quite (like) Txiki – he is not stressed, like me for example.

“The balance is more calm and hopefully he can express himself. I asked him, ‘Forget about it, what we have done. We need your vision, you don’t come to follow just what we have done in the past. So let us talk. What you see about the team, many months watching us.

“What do you think? What can we do better? What is your feeling?’ Back and forth opinions and opinions, and that is when you come up with the best opinions. So I don’t want to be clapped, just the manager all the time. No, it’s not about that, and we never worked like that.

“I rely a lot on my sporting director and they give me the teams or players they believe is the best for the team and as a manager, the staff, we have to lift them and you know, get the best of them.”

On what gives him optimism over finishing in the Premier League’s top-five places

“Some spirit is back, and in some games moments was good. United, no, but the spirit is there. What sustains this chance is spirit. The way the game we played, maybe we’ll a struggle, but the spirit has to be there.

“And we learned, we saw with incredible curiosity this Tuesday, Wednesday Champions League games, and I know the rhythm and I know the spirit that they play and this is what we have to do.”

On why spirit may have left his Manchester City team

“I said many times, there are a lot of reasons, but the main, main reason, main reason, main reason, we didn’t have players, we’ve had a lot of injuries. And with that it is impossible. Put that in any sport, collectively, or with important players in basketball and wherever, the important players don’t play – they are not the same.

“We could not be the same. And we could not rotate, they could not compete with each other, and in a certain moments we needed this spirit and fight, and we don’t have legs, we don’t have energy.

“Because in the that period – October, November, December, January – we will have a lot of games, every three days. That was the reason; I know they wanted it, but they could not.”

On whether he has any further injury problems

“Right now, no. Phil (Foden) is a doubt for tomorrow, for the injury that he had at Old Trafford, but he is a doubt. The rest, except Erling (Haaland), and Manu (Akanji), and John (Stones), and Nathan (Ake), yeah the other ones are okay… Rodri. He’s quite good, huh? You will see when they will be back. You will see.”

On whether his Manchester City players are fresher than previous seasons for this upcoming run-in

“I would love to be in the Champions League, but I said many times; we are miles away to compete against the elite from Europe this season. Always we have been, but this season no, so now is the reality; we have more long weeks, the rest, training good.

“It’s a final every single game. Now it’s not much complicated than when we have 15, 20 games. Now with seven games left, so it’s a final every single game. You have to win a lot of games to qualify because Newcastle have just one game a week, and the quality of Aston Villa, and all the teams are involved. Chelsea and Nottingham (Forest), Fulham is there.

“There are a lot, a lot of teams that will be there and you have to win games. So it’s not much more complicated than that. You want to be in the Champions League next season and living the Tuesday, Wednesday with the elite, you have to win almost all the games.

“It’s not not much with the toughest schedule because we cannot say Crystal Palace and after Goodison Park, playing really good Everton again, I was impressed with the rhythm that they played against Arsenal in the last game and after Aston Villa – so yeah, it is what it is. So accept the challenge.”

On whether he has a points tally in mind for what is required to qualify for the Champions League

“No, no, no. Well, with 21 (more points) we will be there. That’s for sure.”