Revealed: City Trained For 25minutes Before Liverpool Draw – Guardiola

Pep Guardiola, the manager of Manchester City, made the odd claim that his team only had 25 minutes of training before the match against Liverpool.

Following a hard-fought 1-1 draw with rivals Liverpool on Saturday, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola stated that his players had barely had time to practise before taking on the Reds in the pivotal Premier League match.

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He added that after winning the treble the previous season, the Cityzens had very little time to prepare during the preseason.

Speaking to reporters after the Liverpool clash, Guardiola said, “In seven years I don’t train. Maximum 35 minutes. We don’t train. They started pre-season 15 days before… do you know what 15 days is? We played the FA Cup final and the Champions League final. 

They had 15 days more with the new players. We didn’t do one day [of] tactical [work]. The day before, we train… it is the same for Jurgen [Klopp, the Liverpool manager], I’m pretty sure. We did 10-15 minutes with the ball and 10 minutes defensively.

“Before Tuesday it will be 10 minutes on the pitch, moving in that way. We cannot train. If we train, we don’t have players for the next game. We don’t have them. That’s why we have to learn from the past: just understand what you have to do. The press, who jumps. This is what we absolutely rely on.”

The manager also provided an update on John Stones’ condition, who despite being on the bench, did not play a part in the match.

He said, “He feels good but we want to give him one or two weeks to have proper strength training sessions. John is so important for us, I like him playing when he’s completely ready. He’s going to train, partially or complete, with us. His legs especially, to be sure that when he comes back he is stronger. And we then use him, we need him.”

The Sky Blues’ next match is in the Champions League on Tuesday against RB Leipzig, and their next match is on Sunday against Tottenham Hotspur.