Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola admits that Joe Hart is “not happy” about his exclusion on the opening day of the Premier League season.
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But despite describing Hart as an “amazing goalkeeper”, Guardiola said he picked Caballero because he needed a goalkeeper who could build-up the play more quickly from the back and that the Argentinian had the benefit of a longer pre-season than Hart, who returned later to training after representing England at the European Championships. The Catalan giant values their goalkeeper at around $46.5 million dollars, but the English club doesn’t want to pay anything over $27 million as they know that the Spanish champions already possess a quality backup in the form of Marc-Andre ter Stegen. I think that a transfer in the region of £20m would be good business for Everton if they are able to get Hart.
“Kolarov not just today but in the last few games played really well [at centre-back]”.
It was not a flawless display from Caballero, who put City in danger when he sprayed a first-half pass straight to Sunderland attacker Duncan Watmore but he grew into a game that was decided by Paddy McNair’s 87th-minute own-goal after Jermain Defoe cancelled out Sergio Aguero’s early penalty.
But Guardiola said: “I don’t have any complaints about these names”. “I don’t know. I don’t know”. But at the end I have a squad and I decide what I see. I know Yaya from Barcelona, how he loves to play football.
When asked if it was a hard situation to deal with, Caballero said: “Yeah, it is”.
Caballero thinks it will take time for the team to settle down in the new system but was encouraged after their first performance. “That is why I chose him”.
He said: “I speak sometimes with the players and say the reason why”.
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“But after that, we played really better from the back and we can start playing as the boss wants, but we need minutes – we need minutes together”.
