Pep: Rest is history
PEP GUARDIOLA has warned his Manchester City players not to rely on past glories for a place in his starting 11 – insisting those sitting on the bench are there for a reason.
Burnley provided their usual boost to City’s fortunes with a fourth straight home 5-0 victory over the Clarets for Guardiola’s men.
But after a start to the season that has been underwhelming both in terms of points and goals, the Spaniard still fired a warning shot at individuals who he believes have taken their foot off the gas.
A question to Guardiola about resting and rotating his squad in order to protect players produced a surprisingly spiky response.
The City boss said: “It is not about rest here. I saw that Kevin De Bruyne was a little bit exhausted mentally and so missed the trip to Olympiakos.
“But right now I see the players who are in a better condition or more focused.
“If the players think they have been rested because I am rotating, they have made a big mistake.
“I put every game the best players, sometimes for the benefit of the team, sometimes because of injuries, but especially the players who play well.
“If players believe, ‘I deserve to start because I have been here for three or four years’, they have a big mistake.
“It doesn’t matter if you win a lot of titles in the past or you score a lot of goals, you have to show it on the pitch, in the recent past, in the present and especially in the future.”
Raheem Sterling, Aymeric Laporte, Bernardo Silva might wonder whether that was aimed in their direction.
More likely is that Guardiola – refreshed and refocused after signing a new deal – is just rattling a few cages after a sloppy start to their season.
Sterling, Silva, Fernandinho, Joao Cancelo, Phil Foden, Eric Garcia, Zack Steffen, Bernando all began the match with the Clarets on the bench.
Fernandinho, Foden and Garcia were all used in a match where City were beyond reproach against a Burnley side who did not do too much wrong beyond l etting Guardiola’s men out of the blocks fast enough that their pre-match plan was ripped up.
Two clinical finishes from Riyad Mahrez and a superb volleyed finish from Benjamin Mendy saw City out of sight at the break.
Goals from Ferran Torres and a third from Mahrez, assisted expertly by Gabriel Jesus and Phil Foden, delivered victory against a side who have now scored just one goal to City’s 28 in their last seven meetings.
Negatives were few and far between for Guardiola who insisted even the absence of Sergio Aguero after suffering a slight reaction in his knee following Olympiakos, was dismissed.
The striker is expected back in training this week but would appear unlikely to make the trip to Portugal for the Champions League clash with Porto tomorrow.