Pep Guardiola has admitted that Kalvin Phillips is keen to play against his former club ahead of Manchester City vs Leeds United after he revealed how hard it will be to prepare against Sam Allardyce's side given his recent appointment.
Allardyce finds himself thrown in at the deep end as he prepares his side for a trip to the reigning champions in his first game in charge. The 68-year-old has four games to keep the Whites out of the relegation zone, somewhere they currently find themselves - ahead of Nottingham Forest on goal difference alone.
Having lost, 6-1, 5-1, and 4-1 last month respectively, Allardyce knows that the goals against column cannot afford to get any worse if they are to try and stay up this term. Man City will be in no mood to show sympathy on Leeds as they look to capitalise on Arsenal's recent dip in form to seal their fifth Premier League title in six seasons.
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Ahead of kick-off, Guardiola was asked about the strong record he has against Allardyce when the pair have met in the past, with the Catalan manager refusing to take confidence from their previous meetings.
"It's the past," Guardiola said of his previous meetings against Allardyce. "Always the impact a new manager on the players in the first one, two games, every team is playing for important things but Leeds to stay here. I don't know the system they're going to play, we have to adapt in the first 10, 15 minutes. It's a massive, important game for us."
Guardiola was also asked about whether or not Phillips is particularly keen to play against his former club, but the 52-year-old refused to clarify one way or another whether the midfielder would feature against Leeds on Saturday afternoon.
He said: "I'm pretty sure [he wants to play], he is always ready. Every player is ready. Again, doctors, physios, sports science do an incredible job this season to keep players fit and we arrive at the end of the season to have almost all the players ready.
"Everyone has to be ready. Everyone will be important whether it's lots of minutes or a few minutes."
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