Manchester City may not get as much time on the training pitch as they would like with the relentless run of games. However, they saw the reward of their efforts in the 5-0 win over Burnley as some of their attacking drills produced a glut of goals.
Pep Guardiola had demanded more from his players after an unusually shy start to the campaign, with the top scorers in the league for the last three seasons managing just ten goals from their opening eight fixtures.
As well as a public call to arms, there has been extra work in training to try to improve the returns. City players have worked on making good runs into the box whenever Kevin De Bruyne gets on the ball with a chance to whip the ball in, while the forwards have also upped their efforts to be more clinical in front of goal.
Against Burnley on Saturday they scored five to improve their total for the season by 50 per cent in one game. Benjamin Mendy got on the end of a De Bruyne cross for the third goal, while Riyad Mahrez bagged a hat-trick.
Guardiola used his post-match press conference to drill home his message that the players have more chance of staying in the team if they score goals.
"What we are looking for from the back four is ‘don’t make mistakes’," he said.
"If your opponents are good and you make a good action, it is not about this. Make mistakes when you can avoid it, then people up front are going to score the goals.
"The guys up front who score the goals, they have more chance to play more games.
"In football what you have done in the past it doesn’t mean that it will happen in the present. If the players consider it like this it’s a big big mistake."
