PEP’S PUZZLE
Late arrivals and transfer uncertainty leave City plans up in the air
Pep Guardiola counts these occasions towards his trophy haul at Manchester City. He can see little difference between this and the Spanish Super Cup.
That spoke to the glum faces among his team, the consoling of Nathan ake after gifting leicester a decisive late penalty.
City want silverware. Community Shield or Champions league. as he stared at Kasper Schmeichel’s trophy lift, Guardiola did however realise there are wider concerns ahead of the title defence.
The whole squad, bar the isolating aymeric laporte, are only back together for the first time today. The england and Brazil stars return to training, six days from the opener at Tottenham.
City expect to be undercooked again, just as they were at the start of last season.
a ball has yet to be kicked and Guardiola is already talking about negotiating a way through to next month’s international break.
Nine were missing on Saturday, including the injured Kevin de Bruyne and phil Foden.
‘a few players get their condition back so quick,’ Guardiola said. ‘The other ones need a bit more time. We will try to discover which ones are ready immediately.’
City generally afford their players more time off than other clubs, the england quartet given almost a month of summer after their euro 2020 exploits.
That, they hope, will give the individuals an edge when the run of three matches a week strikes in the autumn. There could well be short-term pain, however.
‘We will arrive like last season — late,’ said Guardiola. ‘last season we arrived a little bit flat in terms of results. But after a while we were there and started to win.
‘i am incredibly confident many good things are going to happen this season. But how can we be ready when the players have just three or four training sessions? in the beginning of the season we are going to try to get results knowing we are not at our best.’
last year there was a 5-2 home defeat by leicester, a stagnant draw at leeds.
Guardiola views his task over the coming weeks as avoiding those sort of results. it sounds funny that the mighty City — now boasting the most expensive British footballer in history, Jack Grealish — plan to muddle through for a bit, but that is where they are.
The £100million midfielder was left shocked on Thursday when he entered the etihad home dressing room to find his jersey adorned by the No10 left by Sergio aguero.
The honour shows what is expected of the 25-year-old, brought on for half an hour at Wembley to try to find a way of lighting up the match.
Grealish was direct from the left, attempting to draw defenders and make something happen in a performance probably not indicative of how he will play generally.
City have bought a player who can run games with poise, knowing exactly when to press the accelerator, and his cameo was not the stage for those skills.
Grealish is a timely boost for Guardiola given the uncertainty that exists elsewhere, at least until deadline day on august 31.
The Catalan has at least three first-team regulars — understood to be Bernardo Silva, laporte and Gabriel Jesus — who want to leave, while this week should bring fresh indication of how the pursuit of Harry Kane will play out.
So effectively Guardiola does not really know what his squad will look like next month.
LEICESTER (4-2-3-1): Schmeichel 7; Pereira 7.5, Amertey 6.5, SOYUNCU 8, Bertrand 6.5 (Thomas 78); Ndidi 7.5, Tielemans 6.5 (Soumare 72, 6); Perez 5.5 (Albrighton 71, 6), Maddison 7 (Dewsbury-Hall 71, 6.5), Barnes 7 (Iheanacho 79); Vardy 6 (Daka 71, 6). Subs not used: Ward, Benkovic, Choudhury. Manager: Brendan Rodgers 7. MANCHESTER CITY (4-3-3): Steffen 7; Cancelo 6.5, Dias 7, Ake 5, Mendy 6.5; Palmer 6.5 (Silva 74, 6), Fernandinho 6, Gundogan 6.5 (Rodri 65, 5.5); Mahrez 6.5, Torres 6 (Knight 74, 6), Edozie 6 (Grealish 65, 6.5). Subs not used: Carson, Sandler, Couto, Doyle, Gomes. Manager: Pep Guardiola 6. Referee: Paul Tierney 6. Attendance: 45,602.