Guardiola lauds Pochettino
MANCHESTER City manager Pep Guardiola lavished praise on his Tottenham Hotspur counterpart Mauricio Pochettino ahead of their sides ’ Premier League tussle at White Hart Lane today.
City top the table after winning their first six games and Tottenham, last season ’ s runners-up, are four points back in second place with the only other unbeaten record in the division.
Pochettino ’ s first win as a coach came against Guardiola, the Argentine ’ s Espanyol stunning Barcelona 2-1 at Camp Nou in February 2009, and the City manager has been an admirer ever since.
“I don ’ t think he ’ s one of the best managers in England – he ’ s one of the best football managers in the world,” Guardiola said at City ’ s training centre in Manchester.
“I enjoy watching Tottenham. Not (just) right now – since last year. I think what he ’ s doing is an amazing job. The way they play, I like a lot.
“He ’ s aggressive without the ball, has a lot of quality with his players. The team is the (England) national team, with (Eric) Dier, (Dele) Alli, Harry Kane, (Kyle) Walker. He has a lot of quality.”
Guardiola added: “If I had not been a coach, I would be just a fan. I would be a young coach who wants to become a coach, and I see Tottenham and I would say: ‘ I would like to play that way ’.”
City won their first 10 games in all competitions under Guardiola, before failing to win for the first time in Wednesday ’ s 3-3 Champions League draw away to Scottish champions Celtic.
They have kept only four clean sheets under Guardiola to date, but he said the scoreline at Celtic Park had given a misleading impression. “Of course to have a clean sheet is perfect, for the goalkeeper, for the team, but the most important thing is how many chances they (the opposition) create,” he said. “That is I think the basis. When they arrive three times, four times, that ’ s good. Sometimes they arrive three times, four times and they don ’ t score goals. “Sometimes they arrive four times, like the last game against Celtic Glasgow – the second half they didn ’ t have any chances, except the first goal in the first minute of the second half – and they score three goals. The problem is when they create more chances. “For example, in the second half at Old Trafford (where City beat Manchester United 2-1), they created more chances than Celtic Glasgow. “They didn ’ t score one goal and Celtic Glasgow scored three goals. I try to see how many chances they create, how many chances we produce. “That is the balance. But, of course, we prefer not conceding goals. We ’ re working on that.” City remain without captain Vincent Kompany, midfielder Fabian Delph and playmaker Kevin De Bruyne due to muscular injuries, but Guardiola gave optimistic updates on their progress. “We ’ re going to have 10 days without games (due to the international break), which will help us, I hope, because we need all of them,” said Guardiola. “Maybe two weeks, three weeks, they ’ ll be ready. I don ’ t know if they ’ ll be ready for Everton (on October 15), for Barcelona (on October 19). I don ’ t know, we ’ re going to see.” –