Manchester City talisman Kevin De Bruyne has revealed that his club’s coach Pep Guardiola does not play with his football principles even if it would cost him the three maximum points.
The 30-year-old Belgium attacking midfielder stressed that the Spanish coach is more concerned about tactics that he sometimes forgets to mention the players that would play ahead of a matchday.
Pep Guardiola is regarded as one of the best football managers in the world. Some football enthusiasts believe that the Spanish coach is among the best coaches of all time.
He has coached FC Barcelona and won everything there was for him to win including two UEFA Champions League titles and three La Liga titles. The 50-year-old coach has also coached Bayern Munich and helped them to win 7 titles including three Bundesliga titles and one FIFA Club World Cup.
Pep Guardiola has been dominating Premier League football since he became the coach of Manchester City in 2016. So far, he has helped Manchester City to win 10 major titles including three Premier League titles.
In all the clubs he has managed so far, there have been two things he has never changed which are possessive football and attacking tactics. He likes to see his team keep the ball and play towards the opposition’s goalpost.
Kevin De Bruyne who has been with the Spanish coach at Manchester City for over five years said the Spanish tactician prefers to lose a game with his principles to switching to counterattacks.
“A lot of people don’t understand this, but Pep would rather lose with his football principles than get a victory with counterattack tactics,” De Bruyne said on the MIDMID podcast.
“He loves to attack in football.
“We always have a meeting before a game and Guardiola says we’re going to do this and this and that, and when it’s over we say ‘Hey, Pep, but who’s playing?’ because he sometimes forgets.”
Kevin De Bruyne said Pep Guardiola was confused ahead of Manchester United vs Manchester City match
On November 6, coach Pep Guardiola led Manchester City to Old Trafford to play against Manchester United. The Premier League game ended 2-0 in favor of City.
Despite the easy victory which saw Manchester City enjoy 68 percent of the ball possession and had 16 shots, 5 of which were on target, Kevin De Bruyne revealed that before the game, Guardiola could not decide on how to approach the game because Manchester United don’t have a specific style.
Kevin De Bruyne said:
“The day before a game we usually train tactically, based on how the opponent play,” De Bruyne continued.
“Before United, Pep said: ‘We don’t know how they are going to play. We shall see’. And we stopped training after 10 minutes or so.
“Often Pep knows how the opponent is going to play. This time he didn’t know, so he didn’t know what to do. We have done what we always do, but he didn’t know beforehand if they would play with five at the back. With four. A diamond in the middle. With three upfront.”
After the 0-2 win over Manchester United, Manchester City are currently sitting on the second spot on the league table with 23 points in 11 games, 3 points below first placed Chelsea. While Manchester United are sitting on the 6th spot with 17 points in 11 games.
After the November international break, Manchester City will take on Everton in their 12th Premier League game of the season. The league game will kick off at 15:00 on Sunday, November 21.
KDB 19/20: Every PL Big Chance created @DeBruyneKev pic.twitter.com/ZAHwNmltrh
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