Pep Guardiola has used his pre-match press conference ahead of Chelsea against Manchester City next week to talk up his opposite number Maurizio Sarri and his style of football.
Sites like Reuters carried the quotes from the Spanish boss, who was full of praise for our manager and the way he sets his teams up:
“The job he has done so far, from my point of view, is excellent. Some people do not know how difficult it is to create a special way to play. You need time,” Guardiola told reporters on Friday, ahead of the meeting between the teams on Saturday.
“Maybe they are not playing 90 minutes but when they play good for 50, 60, 70, 75 minutes, they are excellent.”
Perhaps it’s easy for Pep to say this when the two go into a game where his team are heavily favoured. The two have often been connected stylistically, and the high pressing, possession based game they both favour clearly comes from the same tree.
Both have spoken of their respect for each other before, and they both went to great lengths to praise each other before both the of Napoli – Man City ties last season.
So in a way, Pep’s compliments of Sarri are just compliments to himself. But there’s no denying whose team is executing their gameplan better right now. As it stands, the younger man is set to sweet the Blues.
