Pep Guardiola wants Phil Foden to start acting more like a senior member of the Manchester City squad.
The 19-year-old has been earmarked as a potential superstar by the academy for years and the City manager has showered praise on him as well as keeping him in the first team squad since the beginning of the 2017/18 season.
First team minutes remain hard to come by though, and despite impressing again on the summer tour the teenager has managed no starts and just ten minutes of playing time from three games so far. The arrival of club record signing Rodri and the decision to keep Ilkay Gundogan at the club has only intensified the fight for places in a title-winning team.
Guardiola insists that everyone will get their chance once the cup competitions pick up but at the same time would like Foden to be show that he is fully comfortable as an established member of a star-studded first team squad.
"He is a shy guy. I would like him to talk more to me, but all the time I go to him and speak to him," he said.
"He still looks at me like a little bit [too much] respect like a manager - after two or three seasons it’s not necessary. But it’s normal, he is 18, 19 years old, now he goes for [England] Under-21 and he is going to play and he is nice, he is ok, everything is in the right position."
Competition for places has rarely looked stronger at the Etihad and the players have already been asked after games this season about the selection decisions that will always leave someone unhappy. Kevin De Bruyne said that the manager sometimes cannot explain his decisions while Ilkay Gundogan indicated the players just have to accept when they don't play and be ready for the next big game that comes their way.
While Guardiola joked that he was too good ever to be in that position during his playing career, he admitted that players coming to challenge his team selections has led him to change his mind in the past.
"It’s happened. It’s happened, players before the game say I’m ready to play, I want to play. I said yes. I like it," he said.
"I like when players come and say 'I want to play. Manager I want to play because I’m ready to play.' I say 'that’s good let me think about it'. Sometimes that happens.
"But it’s normal. I understand. I was a football player. They are not happy, they want to play all the games. The young guys like Phil, old as well like David [Silva], Fernandinho and the other ones, I understand completely."
