Pep: Andy Carroll is better than my defenders
Pep Guardiola may be in hot water, after giving Nathan Redmond some animated advice at the end of Manchester City’s midweek game against Southampton, but that hasn’t stopped him putting himself in David Moyes’ shoes.
The Scot’s West Ham team couldn’t be bigger underdogs ahead of their visit to the Etihad this afternoon, but the City boss insists that they can pull off a shock.
“I don’t know what it’s like to be in a relegation battle, because I’ve been lucky to have always been at big clubs,” says Guardiola.
“But I know that, more than tactics or anything else, you need confidence and belief you can do it.
“You must never give up. Of course, your opponent is good, but you are good as well. I think the head is the most important thing.
“I cannot deny we’re in better form than West Ham. We’ve won a lot of games and they didn’t win many for a long time, so we’re better.
“But I always trust players’ professionalism and they have a manager with experience to handle the situation.
“I won’t think: ‘It’s only West Ham so we’re going to pick six players from the second team’.
“That’s ridiculous. We have to respect them. And the best respect is to be serious and play as well as possible.
“I can i magine them defending, like Huddersfield or Southampton, and Andy Carroll scoring a goal because in the box Carroll is better than our central defenders.
“One counter-attack, we get a red card and we can lose the game. Anything can happen.
“We must be calm and prepare as well as possible, because it’s the same three points as against United next week.
“In the last two games, we had trouble winning because Huddersfield and Southampton had 10 players sitting deep. However West Ham play, we will have to adapt and find a solution.
“Our captain, Vincent Kompany, says that we now have the feeling whenever we go, whoever we are play, we are capable of winning. I believe that, too.
“I am satisfied with results, but we have to more than double the points we have so far if we are to be champions.”