Garcia taking tips from his fellow City team-mates
ERIC Garcia has revealed that he is learning from City team-mates Aymeric Laporte, Nicolas Otamendi and Fernandinho as he strives to improve as a defender.
Despite his tender years, Garcia is already establishing himself as one of the best young defenders in the Premier League and is pushing for a permanent spot in the first team.
The 19-year-old has been afforded plenty of opportunities this season due to City’s injury problems, with the Blues winning eight of the nine games he’s appeared in thus far.
Garcia has impressed in his brief time on the pitch but he is striving to improve and learn from his fellow teammates.
“I try to learn from all of them, from every single aspect defensively and offensively,” the Spaniard told The Athletic.
“Especially offensively with Ayme [Laporte] and Fernandinho, because Fernandinho used to play midfield so it’s a bit easier, and then defensively Otamendi especially because he’s like the same kind of player in terms of weight and height as me, so it’s good to learn from him.”
There have been some suggestions that Garcia, standing at 5ft 11in, isn’t tall enough to cut it as a central defender in England but Garcia takes inspiration from some of the game’s best ever defenders.
“Otamendi is not the tallest one,” he continues. “Puyol wasn’t the tallest one, Mascherano, Cannavaro, so we have a lot of examples and they showed that they could easily win those challenges.
“At the end I think if you use your body in a good way when you’re jumping it’s kind of similar, so I’m trying to work on it.”
BY all means, give Liverpool the credit their brilliant season deserves.
They will win the Premier League and – regardless of some curious luck with both VAR decisions and injuries – they deserve it.
They have been the best team in the country, probably in the world, and City’s slight slackening this season has accentuated their dominance.
But spare us the kind of holy
BARCELONA star Lionel Messi has opened up on his positional evolution at the club when current City manager Pep Guardiola was in charge of the Spanish giants.
The Argentine enjoyed some of the finest years of his career under Guardiola’s guidance - netting an nonsense which Jamie Carragher came up with when he hailed Jurgen Klopp’s team this week.
“Liverpool are not buying superstars, they are making them,” was the former Anfield defender’s judgment after they extended their unbeaten league run to 21 games this week.
Heaven forbid that anyone should suggest that Liverpool’s run of success has been sullied by the application of large amounts of cash in the way that City’s was, eh?
Carragher’s reasoning was that Klopp has brought in players who incredible 211 goals and registering 89 assists in just 219 games with the Catalan at the helm.
Messi started out as a right winger at Barca but soon transitioned to a central role often termed as a ‘false nine’.
The 32-year-old explained that it was Guardiola’s decision to shift him to the centre prior to a game against their biggest rivals - Real Madrid.
“I remember that it was a surprise he has then improved into worldclass stars.
“Robertson came from Hull, Wijnaldum was relegated with Newcastle, Salah had been at Chelsea, Mane had been in the Premier League... they are not just going to the best clubs in the world and buying the best players,” said Carragher.
So exactly who is going to the best clubs and buying the best players? It doesn’t happen.
City’s best players include bargains from Wolfsburg, Valencia, Monaco, Schalke and Athletic Bilbao, all of whom have been improved by Pep Guardiola. None from Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich.
Carragher’s claim also conveniently overlooks the fact that Salah, Mane and Wijnaldum cost around £93m combined, way beyond the reach of all but a handful of English clubs.
And it ignores completely the fact that Liverpool broke the world record transfer spend in 2018, just months after Klopp had taken the moral high ground and declared he for me, because I was called up the day before the game, was made to go to Guardiola’s office at the Ciutat Esportiva, and I was told that he had been watching Madrid’s games a lot, as he did with every opponent,” Messi told La LigaonDAZN.
“He had been talking with Tito Vilanova and they had thought about me playing as a false nine. He was going to put Samuel [Eto’o] and Thierry Henry on the outside, and I would walk away from football if he ever felt the need to throw cash at his problems. Asked about his massive U-turn, the German beamed one of those pearly smiles and declared he had changed his mind, conveniently enough.
Not that there is anything wrong with spending big in order to compete. Money has always talked in football, and the financial power wielded by United, Liverpool and Arsenal in the 90s and Noughties has only recently been challenged by the new-found wealth of City and Chelsea. And boy, do they not like it. All kinds of snooty pronouncements about ‘oil money’ and ‘earned through excellence’ have been bandied around to ensure that the traditional elite can retain their sense of moral superiority, even as they lost their sporting dominance. Liverpool splashing out £75m for Virgil van Dijk was excellent business, a move that City might now regret not making when they
Stuart Brennan was going to play as the false centre forward.
“I wasn’t going to stay there, but rather come out and join up with the central midfield. The idea was that Madrid’s centre-backs would follow me out, and the two fast wingers that we had would go around the back.
“In fact, one of Henry’s goals was like that. It was a surprise for us and for Madrid. I remember that we had a