Angelino has admitted a frustrating spell under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City threatened to derail his career, before becoming a standout performer in the Bundesliga and Champions League with RB Leipzig.
The 24-year-old was restricted to just 15 senior appearances during his period with City, whom he joined in 2013 as a teenager from Deportivo La Coruna.
When asked about the contrast between Leipzig manager Julian Nagelsmann and Guardiola during a Zoom interview from his club’s expansive training base, Angelino said:
“They both like to play with the ball, get the ball quick, there is one thing that is a big difference: one gave me the confidence and played me and the other didn’t.
“I'm just thankful to Julian for the trust and, sometimes you need – I don't want to use a bad or wrong word – you need courage to put a player in and he did that from the first game.”
Building on that, Angelino reviewed his time at City as “a 50/50 experience. On one side I really learned a lot from Pep, but I obviously I didn't play as much as I wanted to or deserved to.”
Drilling down into his relationship with Guardiola, he said not feeling any faith in his abilities from the manager “killed me. For me, confidence is everything. When you don’t have the trust, like I do here with the coach – it affects everything.
SEE ALSO | Richest Premier League Owners (2021) – See The Top 10
“I was judged for pre-season – two games – and then I didn’t get my chance for a few months. It’s hard to play one game every two months.”
This article was most recently revised and updated 4 years ago
