Pep Guardiola may solely chuckle as he responded to Gary Neville’s declare that his all-conquering Man Metropolis workforce are ‘boring’ to observe.
The Manchester United legend made the declare on his widespread ‘Overlap’ podcast alongside Roy Keane, Ian Wright and Jamie Carragher – and he in all probability didn’t assume it could result in a response from the person himself.
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Chatting with his fellow former Premier League icons, Neville mentioned: “You simply can’t watch Metropolis – it’s virtually like they’ve ruined it just a little bit.
“To name Metropolis boring could be fallacious, as a result of the soccer they play is excellent, however I really thought they have been boring – I discovered it troublesome to observe them.”
Any soccer fan can see what the ex-defender was getting at. Man Metropolis are so good, so disciplined in all areas of the pitch, so neat and tidy, so scientific and simply so good that it maybe takes a number of the pleasure out of watching them.
However Guardiola has insisted that whereas his workforce makes it look straightforward, it most actually just isn’t and is the product of an unbelievable quantity of labor behind the scenes from the whole Man Metropolis operation.
And whereas his preliminary response when instructed about Neville’s feedback was a huff of breath and a wry smile, he solely sees it as an important praise to his and his gamers’ efforts.
“Nicely, thanks for the praise,” Guardiola instructed journalists at his press convention on Friday.
“It’s tremendous, what can I say?
“Every thing is so troublesome in soccer, so troublesome, it’s important to do many issues to attempt to win video games and to try this over many, a few years. So what this group of gamers has completed for a few years and on this season as properly, it’s admirable.
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“So hats off to my gamers, it’s unbelievable while you’re so constant, the way in which they take our opponents critically and the way good they’re.
“I had the identical opinion earlier than we performed Copenhagen [a 3-1 win away from home]. It’s actually extremely troublesome to assault if you’re not good or actually good in lots of facets of the sport.
“We can’t obtain what we did obtain this week with out that, and we nonetheless have a sport to play right here [the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie] that we are going to take critically.
“That’s all I can say to my gamers, so hopefully we will proceed in that method.”
Guardiola was then requested if he feels his gamers aren’t given sufficient credit score for his or her achievements since his arrival as Man Metropolis supervisor, the place they collected 5 Premier League titles – together with the final three in a row – two FA Cups, 4 Carabao Cups, the Champions League, UEFA Tremendous Cup and FIFA Membership World Cup.
However the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach mentioned: “After all we’ve credit score, we’re admired, I’m fairly positive of that.
“The individuals within the soccer world understand how troublesome it’s being six or seven years there and there once more, one week, one other one, in all competitions.”
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And he concluded with a message to the journalists within the room, and maybe Neville too, that Guardiola promised they’ll stick to them in years to return – and maybe change the way in which all of us take a look at this Metropolis workforce.
The boss mentioned: “I’m going to inform you one thing sooner or later you’ll not overlook.
“It seems to be straightforward, but it surely’s not. You’ll keep in mind that sentence. It seems to be straightforward, however it isn’t.”
That’s you instructed, Gary!
