Pep Guardiola makes Kalvin Phillips admission after admitting Man City mistakes

Pep Guardiola has told Kalvin Phillips to show him why he decided to stay at Manchester City – starting in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.

Guardiola confirmed Phillips will start their third-round tie at Newcastle, with Rodri beginning a three-match ban after his red card at the weekend. Phillips endured a nightmare first season at City following his £50million move from Leeds, making just four starts in the entire campaign.

The England midfielder could have left this summer, with West Ham an option, but chose to remain at City and fight for his place. Rodri’s enforced absence has opened the door for Phillips, with Guardiola asked what the 27-year-old must do to earn a regular place at City.

“He has to be Kalvin Phillips,” said Guardiola. “But of course, being outside, sitting, seeing players in training sessions and what we are looking for in the training sessions and the meetings, helps a lot.

“But every player has his own specifics. We brought Kalvin here for his quality. There are no twins in football, everyone has their own personality. Marcelo Bielsa gave Kalvin the best of Kalvin in his career at Leeds. I’d love to have done with Kalvin what Marcelo has done to him. It is what it is.

“We have our own specific way to play, sometimes we struggle in a few things, when the previous one was perfect. But Kalvin is open-minded, he always wants to learn, wants to help and this is what we want to try to do.

“He decided to stay this summer, the club spoke with him and even for the fact he didn’t have many minutes, he said ‘No, I want to stay’. If he wants to stay, it’s okay, it’s perfect – he’s a lovely person.”

City lost in the quarter-final stage at Southampton last season – a game Guardiola described as the worst of his glittering reign. “Against Southampton last season, it was the worst game I played as manager of City by far,” said Guardiola.

“I didn’t recognise anything about that game. You can lose, of course you can lose and full credit to Southampton in that game. But you have to be a minimum, that is all I want from my team every game, and tomorrow it’s going to happen, I’m pretty sure of that.”

Guardiola will rotate his squad, with Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva out and players who have featured a lot needing rest. “Unfortunately we cannot take a few players from the second team because we sold a lot of them and those left are not ready to play with us,” said Guardiola.

“We have to give time to them to develop. We can’t just bring them from the academy and play them. They need time to develop.”