Garcia’s not feeling first-team pressure
IF Pep Guardiola chose this week to throw down the gauntlet for young players at City, Aleix Garcia showed against Huddersfield that he is up for the fight.
Guardiola wrote of the club’s prospects in his programme notes that “when they are ready to play, I will be ready to play them”, and duly gave Aleix Garcia his first start since the end of October.
The 19-year-old Spaniard hopes he has done enough to convince, and few can have come away from the Etihad on Wednesday night thinking otherwise.
If his name in the starting XI was a surprise, kick-off provided another; Garcia lined up as the holding midfielder everyone expected Fernandinho to occupy.
Guardiola described the teenager’s start to the game as “shy”, but there was plenty on display in the opening minutes.
His first touch was a towering header (beating a player with more than half-a-foot on him), an interception kept the early pressure in Huddersfield’s half and he soon told Pablo Zabaleta to calm down as the veteran looked for a quick restart from a throw-in.
That transposed across the game and nobody on the pitch had more than the midfielder’s 106 touches and 95 passes in an accomplished deputising for Yaya Toure and Fernandinho. Pressure, what pressure? “It wasn’t difficult because I am used to playing in that position since I arrived at City,” said Garcia. “I really like that position because the manager gives me a lot of confidence and a lot of freedom.
“I adapt to that position and to the team and I think it’s a key position to our game.
“I just try to play my game. People sometimes say it seems that I don’t feel the pressure but it’s the way I am used to playing.
“I feel really comfortable and also my team-mates help me a lot to help me be involved in the team.”
Guardiola has urged his young players to make the most of the opportunities they are given, and indicated that those involved in the December game against Celtic had not done enough to convince him.
But the manager had kind words for Garcia after Huddersfield and the midfield prospect is hopeful of a shorter wait until his next start.
“There’s a lot of games coming in the next few weeks and I think there’s going to be a lot of rotation in the squad”, he said. “When I play, if I have the opportunity, I’m going to try to show the manager he can count on me for the future.”