Richard Keys has hit out at Man City manager Pep Guardiola for criticising Kalvin Phillips for coming back from the World Cup “overweight”.
City manager Guardiola was initially vague when asked why the 27-year-old England international did not even make the bench for Thursday’s Carabao Cup tie against Liverpool.
Guardiola simply said the player was not fit and had not been in the right condition to train after rejoining the City squad.
However, pressed further after Man City’s 3-2 win over the Reds at the Etihad Stadium, Guardiola made clear the injury-hit Phillips had not picked up another knock.
He said: “He’s not injured. He arrived overweight. I don’t know (why). He didn’t arrive in the condition to do training sessions and to play.”
When asked if he thought there was an issue with England’s training regime, Guardiola replied: “No, no, no, no absolutely (not).
“When he will be ready he will play, because we need him, we need him a lot. It’s a private conversation with Kalvin.”
Reacting to Guardiola’s comments about Phillips, Keys posted the back page of the Daily Mirror and questioned why the Man City boss felt the need to “ridicule” Phillips for this “crime”.
Keys said on Twitter: “I’m wondering why Guardiola has exposed Phillips to ridicule for this ‘crime’.
“Never a word when he used to leave [Sergio] Aguero out for the same offence. Strange.”
But Aguero revealed in October that Guardiola did once deem him too overweight to play, the Argentina legend said: “If your ideal weight is 79-80kg and you were 80 kilos and 100 grams you would be fined and you don’t play.
“But it can happen! You come across a little bit of chicken for example then you are going to be 50 grams over!”
When asked if Guardiola ever put him on the bench for being too ‘fat’, Aguero added: “Well the first season we were between fourth and third and he said ‘I left you out because you turned up fat this week.’
“And what was I going to say? He was right… these things happen.
“He said it in a good way. And at the time I didn’t really have his confidence. But I was always very respectful to the coaches.”
Man City return to Premier League action on December 28 when they travel to Elland Road to face Leeds United.
READ MORE: Kalvin Phillips is putting up no fight in losing battle to Rodri at Man City after Leeds mistake
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