Pep Guardiola joked that Phil Foden should be paid for his performance rather than fined for his red card.
The midfielder was shown a second yellow in the closing stages of Manchester City's Champions League win over Atalanta for tugging back Marten De Roon, adding a disappointing touch to a display that had been full of promise.
Guardiola thinks the sending off shows that Foden still has a lot to learn and believes he is still a way behind his teammates and rivals for a starting spot when it comes to certain aspects of games.
However, he was more interested in talking about the 'incredible' player that had helped the Blues to a convincing victory over an opponents that have shown their quality in Serie A over the last two seasons.
Asked if the red card would hit him in the pocket, City's manager replied: "Absolutely not. I never fine except for a stupid thing.
"With Phil, the important thing is not the red card but the way he played. What an incredible player he is. He will know that he has to be a bit more clever when he has the yellow. People say he needs minutes but there are things where he is far away from David [Silva], [Ilkay] Gundogan and Kevin [De Bruyne].
"But that's good. He has to live this kind of situation to understand 'Yellow card, be careful'. That experience is going to help him. Maybe I have to pay him for how well he played.
"We thought it was a game like we could have the opportunity to run, more actions on the counter-attack. Phil has this quality to make box to box and this speed. It was a tactical decision why he played. He is a young guy, still room to improve but it is important. Last season one of the key games Tottenham he played and played so good today. He gets more experience with every minute he plays. He played in a high high level."
