According to the homepage of Manchester City, Pep Guardiola has just made an important decision for his students.
Manchester City is without a game midweek after a 4-1 win over Liverpool. Therefore, coach Pep Guardiola made an important decision for his students.
With the majority of City’s squad on international duty in March ahead of their win over Liverpool at the Etihad, Guardiola decided to give his players a chance to relax and recuperate ahead of their trip to Southampton. Sharing in front of the media, the Spanish leader said:
“Most of the players need rest. I went on holiday during the national team’s gathering in my homeland in Catalonia but the players still have to play two games and stay in a hotel.”
“They can clear their minds, once we move on we will have a lot of games this month. Man City will have three days to prepare for Southampton, then Bayern Munich, Leicester, Bayern Munich, Sheffield United, and Arsenal”.
This could be the last break before the season ends. Man City currently has a chance to win the Premier League and is competing for the FA Cup and Champions League titles.
Grealish has been playing better since Cancelo left
The departure of defender Joao Cancelo and the new tactics of coach Pep Guardiola help Jack Grealish to play more and more sublimely in the Manchester City shirt.
“I don’t want to upset Cancelo but since the day he left Man City, Grealish has shown football at a superior level. It feels like Grealish has more space on the left to attack,” SPORTbible quoted the comment. Comments from a “The Citizens” fan on social media.
Another account commented: “Joao (Cancelo) likes to attack, sometimes entering the penalty area, so it makes Jack (Grealish) play further away from the goal to attract defenders.”.
More humorously, another user commented: “Cancelo has excellent technique so Grealish is not confident enough to dance in front of the opposing defender but often passes the ball to him. When playing with Nathan Ake (the player who is more inclined to play more defensively than Cancelo), Grealish was under pressure so he was braver to hold the ball and breakthrough”
In January, Cancelo left Man City to join Bayern Munich on loan during the 2022/23 mid-season transfer window. This information ᵴuгргιᵴeԀ many people because the Portuguese defender has been a mainstay in coach Pep’s squad since moving to England to play in 2019.
Sharing with O Jogo, Cancelo explained the incident: “After the 2022 World Cup, Pep found a new way of playing. He required the left-back position to be less advanced than before to stay at home to support the defense. Through monitoring, he liked the performance of Nathan (Ake) more than me. My minutes played gradually decreased and I chose to join Bayern to play more.”
However, Cancelo has only 371 minutes to play in 10 appearances for Bayern in all competitions. The frequent entry from the bench at “Bayern Munich”, the latest in the 4-2 victory over Dortmund on April 1, made the Man City players unhappy.
Meanwhile, Grealish became an important piece in Pep’s scheme. Despite only owning 4 goals and 5 assists in the Premier League this season, the English player is the face that creates many threats from the left corridor of Man City. On April 1, the former Aston Villa star received a rain of praise after an impressive performance in the 4-1 victory of “The Citizens” against Liverpool.
Pep is a strategist who likes to find innovation in playing tactics. In recent times, he has begun to alternate between his favorites 4-3-3 and 3-2-4-1. Not only that, this season, the Spanish captain also performed many tests such as using midfielder Bernardo Silva in the position of full-back, or for midfielder John Stones to play in central midfield.
