Hot take alert, but I think pep has failed Phil a little bit. There just always seems to be that little bit of doubt and he flat out refuses to play him centrally with KDB the way he did with kev and david silva. It took kev's injury last year for Foden to become the man and even then Pep flirted with Alvarez in the 10 for ages before giving in and playing phil when alvarez was just crap there game after game.
He is moved to accommodate inferior players all the time and watching bernardo try and create centrally yesterday while the player of the season is booted to right wing is in infuriating. If he isn't as confident as he should be at this point in his career its because he's been doubted frequently by the manager.
The treble season he got lumped to the bench and yes we won the treble and that means any criticism of how we played for much of that season (we were crap till february lol) is null and void but Phil might have helped in some moments maybe.
I don't know, I don't like how pep treats Phil and I know everyone will be like 'oh rag, he treated him so badly he won player of the season' but Foden isn't as consistent as he should be at this point in his career, he seems way more full of doubt and is meeker than he should be with his level of talent.
I actually wonder if Phil will be the rare player that will actually benefit from pep's departure, even if Man city as a whole won't. The team should be built around him now, but pep is clinging on to his 30 plus personal favourites instead.
