Pep Guardiola singled out the performance of Raheem Sterling as Manchester City defeated Sunderland 2-1 in the club’s opening game of the new season. “All the players who didn’t play, they’re sad, they’re upset, of course”.
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Hart was sensationally axed for the first game of the Guardiola era as the former Barca and Bayern Munich coach left him out of the side for the Premier League opener against Sunderland.
“I know the quality of Joe, he is an fantastic goalkeeper”.
The team sheet saw Willy Caballero in goal instead of Joe Hart, who was relegated to the bench for their game against Sunderland, which they eventually won 2-1.
“We didn’t have enough of the ball and when we get it I want us to give the crowd something to shout about”.
City prevailed courtesy of an 87th-minute own goal by Sunderland debutant Paddy McNair, who had only been on the pitch for four minutes. ‘I needed the build-up and to use the goalkeeper to play quicker to arrive the balls behind the line.
The Northern Ireland global signed from City’s cross-town rivals Manchester United earlier this week and his unwitting intervention denied David Moyes a creditable point on his bow as Sunderland manager.
But Moyes said when he asked the 27-year-old about it, Kone was not aware of any statement.
“We can take positives from the performance because we did an very bad lot of good things today”, he said.
He said: “I speak sometimes with the players and say the reason why”. The boy was great, he was great today, he was great yesterday.
Guardiola has publicly said that the England global could yet win his place back in the side. “We’ve not hidden anything”.
The report suggests that the fee could be around €20m – roughly half of his release clause – and that the Chilean worldwide has already agreed terms with the Premier League side. “I wanted aggression without the ball, to create a good build up”.
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“We are definitely looking short in several areas and will do everything we can to improve the team”.
