Pep Guardiola has questioned why preseason managers are even needed when he lamented the lack of time he had with his senior Manchester City stars this summer.
City beat Blackpool 4-1 on Tuesday thanks to goals from Samuel Edozie, Riyad Mahrez and a brace from Ilkay Gundogan to keep their 100 percent preseason record intact.
Despite the formidable form, Guardiola was in a subdued mood after the game due to the limited time he had to prepare his team for the season ahead.
Since some of the most important players in the blues had longer breaks after participating in this year’s European Championship or the Copa America, only a handful of the first-team players were available for the pre-season.
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Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden, Ederson, Gabriel Jesus, John Stones, Kyle Walker, Aymeric Laporte and Ferran Torres must return to training less than two weeks before the Premier League starts.
Guardiola lamented the lack of time he now has with his players to implement the style of play he wants before the start of the season.
“Now is a completely different world for all managers, so we don’t have time,” he told City’s internal media after the game. “Sometimes we think, ‘What’s the reason the manager was here in the preseason?'”
“Because we had three players, on a couple of days we have five, the seniors, then three or four more days we have three or four more.
“Then maybe one of them needs to be isolated because he’s on a plane with 150 people, or one of them tested positive and needs to isolate. The challenge is to adapt.
“As in the past, you have three, four, five weeks to prepare the concepts. Today it is impossible.
“Now the weeks go on thanks to the games and the weeks, and the weeks when we get the condition because we don’t have time.
“We can’t say the idea we want to play because we only have a month. We’ll be together in two or three weeks, so it’s a bit strange. We have to adapt, it is what it is . “
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