Guardiola has reservations about Hart’s ability to play in the type of system that he will be implementing at Manchester City – i.e. with the ball at his feet regularly, and in that regard, Bravo or Ter Stegen are the more preferable options.
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He added that Guardiola’s demand that his keeper is comfortable with passing the ball out from the back, is crucial – and he nearly messed up by giving the ball to Sunderland’s Duncan Watmore early in the game.
“In those moments we should attack quicker, but this (so far) is normal in the moment that we are in, our condition”.
‘Willy had this quality first of all, he trained more times.
That was an attention-grabbing selection but Guardiola repeated – as he was probed regularly about it in his post-match press conference – that it was “a decision for today”.
Should Hart be recalled for Steaua?
As for the unusual roles of the full-backs, Guardiola has no doubt his players will come to terms with it. “They are not kids”. The transaction would give City a neat profit for the player they bought for £100,000 from Shrewsbury Town in 2006. The goalkeeper has won two Premier League titles, two League Cups and an FA Cup, and has also made 63 appearances for the England national team.
The 29-year-old has spent nearly a decade as the top choice City goalkeeper, but his inability to play out from the back as effectively as Guardiola would like and his tendency to make high-profile mistakes in more recent times have been put down as the reasons as to why the Spaniard wants a change.
He added: “I’m very pleased about the performance we achieved”.
“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. I wanted aggression without the ball, to create a good build up”.
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“That does not mean in the future they are not going to play or they are going to play”.
