Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola spoke on the comments of England manager Gareth Southgate about Phil Foden ahead of their game with West Ham
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00:00 Phil Foden told us this week that he wants to try and be one of the best players in the Premier League,
00:06 he says, "I'm going to try and show people what I can do."
00:09 And then you've also got Gareth Southgate, who during the international break questioned
00:12 whether Phil can play in the middle, and says he doesn't often do that for the club.
00:16 So, I guess a double-edged question,
00:19 what does he have to do to be one of the best in the Premier League,
00:22 and what is his ability through the middle?
00:25 First of all, we cannot be one of the best,
00:26 if your mentality is it, I don't want to be one of the best.
00:30 This is so important, when you have some target to climb,
00:36 everything starts from that, I believe in that.
00:38 And the second one, having a great relation with Gareth, any comment of me?
00:43 So, it looks like I disagree with him, and I completely agree with him.
00:47 So, in the fact that when you play outside on the midfield,
00:54 you can play a different role, but he knows I know that Phil can play in all positions up front,
00:58 in the middle, outside, right, left, in the pockets.
01:03 But as Gareth has said, the pockets have another responsibility,
01:07 especially without the ball, sometimes you have to be so smart to read what happens every moment.
01:15 But the important thing is that Phil can play in the five-position up front without a problem,
01:18 and this is a big advantage for him.
01:20 Last day, I saw the friendly game against Cotland,
01:24 they start playing in the right but move most of the time inside,
01:26 so the players move, move right, left, move inside, more outside.
01:29 So, at the end it's not a big issue, but of course when you play high on the pitch,
01:35 your responsibility defensively is less, and Phil will grow up with that,
01:40 because with the mentality, say I want to become one of the best,
01:43 has the mentality to improve all the time, he's trying to listen, to listen.
01:46 And this is a big advantage for all of us.