Pep Guardiola has hailed Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa as the person he admires most in world football.
Bielsa and Guardiola come face-to-face tomorrow when Manchester City travel to Elland Road, with the Blues boss admitting he is in awe of his opposite number.
“He is probably the person I admire the most in world football - as a manager and as a person,” said Guardiola.
“I think he is the most authentic manager of all time, in terms of how he conducts his teams - he is unique.
“Nobody can imitate him, it's impossible, especially his behaviour as a person on and off the pitch.
“I was fortunate sometimes to meet him, I don't see him quite as much now. But when I get the pleasure to spend time with him, it's always inspirational for me.
“The value of the manager does not depend on how many titles he has.
“My teams won more titles than him, buy in terms of knowledge of the game, I am still away from him.
“His teams are always a joy to watch, how honest they are, they always want to attack and produce good football for spectators.”
Guardiola will wait until after today's training session before deciding whether to start with club record £65million signing Ruben Dias in defence.
“He trained two sessions, he’s done good,” said Guardiola. “He’s part of the team right now, we’ve got training this afternoon and then we’ll decide.”
Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Jesus, Ilkay Gundogan and Oleksandr Zinchenko are still unavailable.
