Guardiola defends Grealish after he give the ball away SEVEN times

‘He didn’t come for 25 minutes, he came for five years’: Pep Guardiola defends Jack Grealish after underwhelming cameo in Community Shield defeat and admits Man City will need to grind out wins without stars to start this season

  • Jack Grealish came on for Samuel Edozie and gave the ball away seven times
  • However, Pep Guardiola praised the £100million man’s display at Wembley
  • Guardiola also said it would take time for Grealish to reach his best form 
  • The Manchester City boss handed first starts to Edozie and Cole Palmer 
  • The only goal of the game came late on from Kelechi Iheanacho’s penalty
  • Brendan Rodgers hailed the Foxes for backing up last season’s FA Cup win  

Pep Guardiola has warned that his Manchester City team aren’t ready for the start of the season next weekend and that, like last year, they will inevitably begin slowly.

With so many Brazilian and England internationals in his squad, players who reached the Copa America and Euro 2020 finals respectively and who will only return to training this weekend, Guardiola says it is impossible to be match-ready for next Sunday’s season opener against Tottenham.

Guardiola said: ‘How can we be ready when the players are training three or four sessions? I would love to have the Brazilian guys and the English players. But they finished the season three weeks ago, so they have to rest.

Jack Grealish had a frustrating debut after coming on midway through the second half

The British-record signing gave the ball under the watchful eye of new boss Pep Guardiola

‘It’s just adapt, adapt, adapt. That’s what we did last season when we started a little bit flat in terms of results. But after a while, we were there and started to win. With what I saw today I’m incredibly confident that many good things are going to happen this season.’

He was full of praise for £100million signing Jack Grealish, who managed 25 minutes in the 1-0 Community Shield defeat by Leicester, despite having had four weeks off since he played here in England’s Euro 2020 defeat by Italy.

‘He was really good,’ said Guardiola. 

The City boss praised the former Aston Villa captain though and said he will steadily improve

‘We just need to provide him and let him express his quality. He didn’t come for 25 minutes, he came for five-six years. 

‘He was really good: aggressive, going against full-backs, every time he had the ball he had three players around him. Step by step he will find his best.’

Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers revealed that Wesley Fofana’s horror leg break in mid-week has also left ligament damage which means the centre-half will be out for the best part of six months.

Rodgers said of his team’s win: ‘I think we’ve seen there the spirt of the players, by winning it they have that feeling. And that’s where it begins, where success starts.’

Grealish’s team-mates Kyle Walker and Raheem Sterling return to training on Monday

Winger Samuel Edozie made his City debut before the 18-year-old was replaced by Grealish

Cole Palmer also made his first start for the club as Guardiola fielded a makeshift line-up

Kelechi Iheanacho stroked home the winner from the spot after being fouled by Nathan Ake

Brendan Rodgers is delighted by the Foxes’ mindset shift after they backed up their FA Cup win




Share this article

Source: Read Full Article