Shaun Wright-Phillips has shared his thoughts on how Manchester City’s players will fare without having Pep Guardiola on the touchline.
It was revealed earlier in the week that the Spaniard had undergone surgery on a back issue and will not be with his squad for their upcoming Premier League fixtures against Sheffield United and Fulham.
With the Citizens set to travel to Bramall Lane tomorrow for their latest league outing, one pundit and former City star has shared his thoughts on this big change.
Wright-Phillips drops verdict on Guardiola absence
Speaking on a recent edition of Team Talk by Premier League Productions (via Optus Sport), Wright-Phillips had this to say about how the City players will get on without having Guardiola in the dugout.
He said: “I think they’re so well drilled in respect of how they’re going to play and what they want to do that it’s almost like a driverless car in that he doesn’t actually need to be there to make it work.
“I think he’ll be screaming and shouting from his bed while he’s resting but I think they should be fine.”
With Guardiola’s assistant coach, Juanma Lillo, revealing in a recent press conference that even though the 52-year-old will not be taking the team talk ahead of Sunday’s clash against the Blades, he has still been focused on the match and will be in contact with the coaching staff on the day.
Although, as Wright-Phillips said, given the significant period of time that most of the current City players have been working with Guardiola, it doesn’t seem likely that they’ll struggle to play the way he wants them to just because he’s not in the dugout.
Moving forward, even though the away side will likely be seen as the favourites to win this game tomorrow afternoon, it’ll be interesting to see if there are any differences in the way they play or approach the game.
