Pep seems to despise him. Must be a serious lack of trust there. I’d love to know the specifics of what’s lead to this. It has to be deeper than fitness.
I've seen Phillips play enough against City at Leeds and for England to know that even if he's not good enough to be a starter here, he's more than good enough to come on for 20 minutes and shore up midfield and inject some energy into proceedings.
I don't think the weight thing was as big a deal as people made out - I think Pep was trying to send a little message to the squad and realised he messed that up a bit by singling out the new guy when he defended him and said he's not fat at the next press conference.
But something's not right there. It's like Conte or Mourinho refusing to play certain people they didn't want to buy but the board overruled them. Except this is City, and Pep rules everything.