Blues playing for keeps with trophy talk shot at Quad
DESPITE Pep Guardiola’s advice against looking too far ahead, City players have their eyes on winning the Quadruple this season.
After Aleks Zinchenko declared that ‘of course’ City can win all four trophies on offer, Guardiola advised his players to continue focussing on the next game and nothing more.
City are runaway leaders in the Premier League and face a Carabao Cup final next month. After City booked their place in a Champions League quarter final, Guardiola issued another warning to his players who want to dream of winning multiple trophies while the cabinet for this season is still empty.
Guardiola said: “If they want to think about it, it’s good, it’s simple, if they want to think about trophies they have to win tomorrow [at Everton]. After they can think about trophies, to win tomorrow they have to be focussed tomorrow.”
Now, in an interview with American broadcaster NBC Sports, first team goalkeeper Zack Steffen says Zinchenko isn’t the only player thinking about what could be achieved at the end of the season.
However, while admitting that end of season trophy lifts are on the minds of the highflying City squad, Steffen also reiterated the importance of staying grounded in order to make those dreams a reality.
He said: “It’s more game by game, but there’s obviously talk to raise as many trophies as possible. We’re in a good spot, happy, there’s a lot of work to be done, so we’re not getting too high.
“We’ve got to keep going, it’s not going to be easy. This part of the season will be the toughest part so we’ve got to keep going.”
Steffen also discussed his relationship with Ederson, saying the atmosphere within City’s goalkeeping department is one that pushes each keeper to improve – and also revealing that the ‘keepers are eyeing another trophy at the end of the season for
KEEPER ADMITS QUAD IS ON EVERY PLAYER’S MIND
themselves. He continued: “It’s amazing to watch and learn from [Ederson], a great guy and great goalkeeper. It’s fun, we laugh a lot, push each other.
“He’s been great, Scott [Carson] has been great, Xabi [Mancisidor, goalkeeping coach] and Rich [Wright, coach].
“They’re very detailed and good at making you better, technique-wise. Very good at seeing what you can improve on. Hopefully we can get this Golden Glove and get the trophies at the end of the season.”