Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola says that his players will be prepared for the unknown when they take on archrivals Manchester United in one of the world’s biggest football derbies today. The match will take place at Old Trafford and kick-off is at 2:30pm (SA time).
Guardiola will take charge for a 27th derby – more than any other City manager. He will come up against a new coach in the opposition dugout after Michael Carrick was named United’s interim boss until the end of the season.
Carrick had three games in charge at Old Trafford at the end of 2021 and also had three seasons in charge at Middlesbrough. Taking charge of United for the first time, Guardiola said he will not have much information to give his players on how United will set-up with the focus be on our strategy.
“When you have more info of what the opposition manager does, you can give more info to the players,” the City boss said.
“When you don’t have any info, you can’t give any info to the players so you focus on yourself. Maybe with the line-up, we will have an idea, you can see what he did at Middlesbrough or the first part at Man United, but tactics are about the players and who they have will be different to Middlesbrough. So what they are going to do I don’t know.”
Guardiola says the players will have to adapt quickly to United’s set-up and says it was similar to when we faced Chelsea earlier this month following the departure of Enzo Maresca.
“I don’t have a timeout after 10 minutes to say ‘guys Michael wants to do this’,” he added.
“We don’t have time, when you don’t have info it’s better to focus on yourself. For example recently against Chelsea with a new manager the first half was completely different to the second, that’s why it’s a question of adapting and focusing on yourself.”
While Carrick will be a new opponent as a manager, Guardiola was an admirer of the midfielder as a player. Carrick played in a similar holding role to Pep, who believes they often make the best coaches.
“I would say maybe central defenders and holding midfielders, because of their position, have a better global vision than playing as a winger for example,” he added.
“I’m not saying that a winger cannot read perfectly the game but it’s different. All I can say is Michael as a player was extraordinary.” –www.mancity.com
