Tribal Football

Man City boss Guardiola: Khusanov stronger for winning debut (and early error)

Paul Vegas
Man City boss Guardiola: Khusanov stronger for winning debut (and early error)
Man City boss Guardiola: Khusanov stronger for winning debut (and early error)Manchester City
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says Abdukodir Khusanov will be stronger for his debut in victory over Chelsea.

The defender gifted Chelsea an early lead as his soft defensive head led to Noni Madueke's opener. But City eventually took control to win 3-1 on Saturday night.

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Guardiola said afterwards: “What I thought was it is not the best start, right? He will take the lessons; he is young and has come for many years.

“It is not easy. I love the reaction of his mates. He made one training session. He will learn. He is young and he will take a lesson from that.

"He doesn’t speak English. In that situation there isn’t much to say, he knows he made a mistake. What can I say - don’t make a mistake! He knows it!,” the boss added.

“Marmoush, Vitor (Reis) and Khusanov cannot play on Wednesday and John needs the rhythm.

“We have a final on Wednesday with our people and John is important (which is why I made the change.)”

On the match, Guardiola also stated: “We weren’t exceptional, but we take the ball a lot and made a lot of passes.

“They don’t know the movement of Marmoush yet but in the situation, we are in a 3-1 win over Chelsea, and it is really important for us ahead of our final on Wednesday and the rest of the Premier League.”