Kalvin Phillips poised for major Manchester City position change as training ground footage leaks Barcelona defensive system

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola could trial the usage of Kalvin Phillips within his back-four this week as Barcelona face the Premier League champions in Orlando.

The Englishman has endured yet more challenging outings for Manchester City whilst on pre-season tour in the United States this month, starting the club’s opening contest against Celtic before appearing as a second-half substitute against AC Milan in New York.

Both appearances brought their various challenges for Phillips, who appeared to struggle with the high-press of opposition sides, whilst his appearance at Yankee Stadium almost brought about a mammoth individual error having given the ball away on the edge of the penalty area.

But Pep Guardiola may now have identified a potential solution to integrate Phillips into his first-team picture, with a fresh set-up and positional change looking likely to be experimented in the pre-season meeting with Barcelona this week.

As spotted by MailSport’s Jack Gaughan at Manchester City training on Monday evening, assistant coaches Juanma Lillo and Carlos Vicens worked on a new defensive shape on the training ground that saw a new position for Kalvin Phillips.

The 28-year-old midfielder was being trained into a right-sided central defensive role alongside support from Josko Gvardiol, with Rico Lewis as the right-back and Josh Wilson-Esbrand in his natural left-back position.

Ahead of the defensive four in training also saw Academy starlet Nico O’Reilly alongside the experienced Mateo Kovacic acting as deep-lying midfielders to protect the rearguard following recent struggles in defensive areas in the United States.

Regardless of Kalvin Phillips’ performances in Manchester City’s final two pre-season contests in the United States, the expectation is that the club will remain open to offers for the former Leeds United man.

At present, there have been no reliable reports of concrete proposals made by suitors this summer, although there is understood to be interest from throughout the Premier League, despite the player’s failure to make an impact on a six-month loan at West Ham last season.

While Manchester City would no doubt prefer a permanent agreement for Kalvin Phillips in the remaining weeks of the summer transfer window, club officials may have to settle for a basic loan deal, or a temporary agreement including an option or obligation to buy in 2025.