Guardiola left out some big names from his starting XI in Manchester City’s Premier League clash with Sunderland, which they won 2-1 thanks to a late own goal from Paddy McNair.
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“Of course he can play”.
City got off to the ideal start at the Etihad Stadium as Sergio Aguero buried a fourth minute penalty won by Sterling, before claiming all three points late in the tie as substitute Paddy McNair inadvertently headed into his own net – this after Jermain Defoe had scored a 71st minute equaliser.
“We can take positives from the performance because we did an bad lot of good things today”, he said.
The former Shrewsbury player has made 347 appearances for City, winning two Premier League titles, an FA Cup, two League Cups and 63 England caps, but Guardiola opted to start with Willy Caballero. It’s not about tactics, it’s not about anything, and I decided today for this line-up. The second half until the goal from Defoe we played really, really well, we made good build ups, with John, Kolarov, Fernandinho, Gael and Sagna.
City came out looking a little rejuvenated but some stubborn defending from the Sunderland back-line set up a nervy finish going into the final quarter.
That is one of the weaker aspects of Hart’s game and Guardiola is believed to be unhappy that the player did not attempt to improve it ahead of his arrival this summer.
The 2-1 win by City was the nightcap of a seven-fixture opening day for the Premier League season, the highlight of which had to be from the very first match.
“They played better, we tried to do our best”, the Italian told Sky Sports.
But he had a hard time on England duty at Euro 2016 and City have been linked with other goalkeepers since the arrival of Guardiola in the summer.
“We showed what we’re capable of and hopefully we can take that into Tuesday’s game”.
“When we got back to one each it was disappointing, we gave away a bad goal”. Find us on Facebook too!
The Scot, who has had just three weeks to work with his squad since succeeding Sam Allardyce, said: “We will need to play at that level of intensity but I want to play in a way where we have more of the ball”. “It was great to see everyone pulled together and we got a result that surprised a few people”.
“More importantly I need to build on what happened previous year with Sam”.
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It’s only the first game of the season but a performance like that will give huge confidence as the season goes on – he could become Guardiola’s most important player.
