Pep Guardiola would not change his Manchester City players for anybody else
Pep Guardiola says he would not change his Manchester City players for anybody else, praising his squad’s ability to “stick together” to turn around their season.
Saturday’s 3-0 triumph against Spurs extended City’s domestic winning run to 16 games and their lead at the top of the Premier League to seven points.
Guardiola’s side managed the record-breaking feat thanks to a remarkable team effort, with 14 different players getting on the scoresheet since their 1-1 draw against West Brom in December.
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Ilkay Gundogan, Ruben Dias and Phil Foden have all emerged as City’s key players recently, and the Spaniard says he enjoys not relying on an individual in order to win games.
“We don’t have players who can win the game by himself – we don’t have a Messi, a Cristiano, Mbappe or Neymar,” Guardiola said. “We have to do it as a team.
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“I’ll be honest, I would love to have a player who scores every single game four goals and runs like these players run, I would love it.
“I wouldn’t change any player that we have right now today, in this season. All of them. That’s why many times I praised our captain Fernandinho, like how he helps on and off the pitch to stick together in the bad moments.
“The big teams, the big players show it in the bad moments, in the good moments everyone is easy to play, and we had the bad moments this season.
“We had a moment when we were in 12th position in the table, we were five points away from Tottenham [and eight after the loss] who were top of the league when we lost there and now we are 17 points ahead of them.
“So that means consistency, how we turned over this situation, and that means a lot. Maybe that won’t be enough to win the title, but what we enjoyed the last two months belongs to us.”
Manchester United’s 1-1 draw at West Brom on Sunday gave City the perfect opportunity to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League to 10 points if they win their game in hand at Everton on Wednesday.
But Guardiola is wary of the threat posed by Carlo Ancelotti’s side and underlined his side’s impressive run will mean something only if they are to clinch the league title back from Liverpool’s hands.
“Every training session is good, every approach to a game is good, the mood is good. And of course, when you win games, win games, win games, it’s easier to win the next one,” Guardiola said.
“The more difficult thing is when you want to win games when you have two or three defeats. For example when we travelled to Southampton after our draw against West Brom.
“So now, we have a huge opportunity to extend our distance against Everton. We know Everton how tough it is, but no teams play except Carlo and ourselves.
“It’s a good opportunity to take more distance, because in February and March no one is champions and this kind of run of victories will make sense if we are able to win the title.”
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