The City playmaker moved on to 24 goals in all competitions with a brace against Brighton and, with 16 Premier League strikes to date, he is now only four goals behind team-mate and Golden Boot leader Erling Haaland.
But the City boss believes there is much more to come from Foden, who he wants to see mixing his all-action creativity occasionally blended with a more measured approach.
“I said many times. Phil has a sixth gear, but he cannot play all the time in the sixth gear,” said Pep.
“Sometimes with the second and the third [is fine] and I think with the time, he will learn that.
“Against Brighton was much better than the two or three games before. Everything is one [action] too quick.
“But football has to say, sometimes slower to make quicker in order to surprise the opponent, and at Brighton he was really good and the movement happened at the right moment.
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“He attacked when he needed to help to attack, but it’s a question of time, he will understand the game through years and experiences.
“That he loves to play and of course the sense of what is there, and his work ethic is unbelievable.
“How he runs and presses and in that time we are really pleased and happy for him and congratulate him and hopefully he goes into the last month we have ahead of us and he doesn’t stop.”
Asked by a journalist to expand on the ‘sixth gear’ analogy, the boss said: “I would love to go in sixth gear every single action.
“But after, you are less precise. If you are in sixth gear and lose the ball all the time that is not effective.
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“Sometimes you have to reduce the moment and he has to know when he has to be aggressive and has to be more calm.
“But this is a question of time. He improved a lot in that terms from the beginning of the season and the previous seasons.”
And asked if Foden was his player of the year so far, Pep said: “He’s one of them, but I had the feeling that what he wants most is the Premier League.
“I would say that, but I don’t know, it’s not in my business. But it’s one of them, that’s for sure.”
