The main topics were the state of injuries of Erling Haaland and John Stones, and Guardiola referred to the controversial statements of the co-owner of Manchester United, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, about immigration, writes the Manchester Evening News.
Erling Haaland, who was substituted at half-time against Fulham in midweek, was questioned about the performance. Although Guardiola believes the injury is not serious, a decision on his participation will be made on match day.
“Erling is not at one hundred percent. We will see how he feels today. It is not a big problem, the doctor told me, but he felt discomfort during the game and that is why he did not play in the second half,” said Guardiola.
The good news for City is the return of John Stones, who did some training after a two-month layoff. “Fortunately, he did two or three training sessions, so we will see if he will play and how many minutes,” said the City coach, reports Index.hr.
At one point, Guardiola received a question from Umir Irfan, a BBC journalist. Irfan recalled an article that Guardiola personally wrote in 2006, 20 years ago, about the problems the Spanish national team faced against Tunisia. “In that column you talked about how when the Spanish players from the first line drop deeper, if they do it too quickly, the midfield becomes very congested.
How do you find that balance and how do you train players like Semeny, Cherki, Doku and Foden in closed spaces and in the fluidity between them, so that it helps you create chances, instead of the pitch becoming very congested?” asked Irfan.
“Want to be my assistant? Fuck, you’re great. We have the quality in the squad that we have. Right now we really only have one real winger, Antoine, and so we have to put together a system where the players feel comfortable. Nothing more than that. When I’m 70 or 80 years old, I’ll look back and say that as a coach I would change a lot, a lot of things. Ideas about passing the ball and high pressing. But if I don’t have wings, then I can’t play with wings, I have to find something else a solution to make the players feel comfortable, nothing more,” said Guardiola.
(Vijesti.ba)
