CITY Attack the best form of defence for Pep...
PEP Guardiola would not come out and say he prefers the challenge of teams that try to take the game to him after seeing Wolves do just that, despite repeated questioning on the subject.
He couldn’t, not only because he makes a rule about not commenting about other managers, but because City were already in Jose Mourinho’s bad books for some of the framing of the Amazon documentary – to give the United manager an easy distraction from his current woes would be like an early Christmas present hand-delivered to The Lowry.
What Guardiola did concede, though, was that all who saw the spectacle at Molineux on Saturday lunchtime will have enjoyed themselves.
“If I say I admire the way, I’m saying maybe the other ones I don’t like it or I’m criticising them. Every manager can do what they want because they know their teams. I don’t like it when other managers judge my job or do what they want to do.
“The other managers decide because they know their team, their players and they saw our games and decide to play in that way. It looks perfect.
“To discover the secret it depends what the opponents want to do and try to beat them. But I think for all the spectators here in the stadium and everybody watching on TV, they enjoyed it because they had chances and we had chances. And I think for the Premier League it’s good.”
City’s upcoming match with Newcastle is unlikely to make many adverts for the competition. Jamie Carragher branded the league a joke and an embarrassment when the teams met at St James’s Park last season such was the lack of adventure shown by the hosts, and Rafa Benitez’s side received more criticism at the weekend Pep Guardiola for shutting up shop from the off against Chelsea.
But while Wolves gave it a go and got their rewards for it, they still defended in numbers and City are likely to face a similar challenge when they attack Newcastle.
Guardiola was far more pleased with the way his team set about breaking Wolves down than their defensive effort. They may have only scored one goal but it is rare the manager comes out and declares himself satisfied with the number of chances created. It has been a target for the squad since City were nearly ground down last winter as Newcastle, Huddersfield, West Ham, Southampton and others all attempted to shut the Blues out.
If the players impressed on Saturday but did not do enough to get three points, the next game brings the opportunity to show even more progression and pick up the win to show for it.