Pep Guardiola showered Leeds United with praise for their quality, movement, aggression and winning their duels after last October’s draw. Raphinha wasn’t even playing.
Manchester City were the better team in the opening and the closing of the Elland Road clash last autumn, but the Whites were right in it and had chances to win through the heart of the match.
Guardiola was very complimentary about Marcelo Bielsa’s side after the game and broke down why they are such a menace to play against.
“Because they are a good team and normally when you play with two teams the other one plays too,” he said.
“Sometimes they are good too and you have to accept it. You have to learn from this, but we never change our faith and our approach to try to take the ball as quick as possible.
“It’s a difficult team to face because they have five players behind our midfield line and complete movement attacking the spaces. It’s so difficult.
“They split like two teams. They have five players there and five players up front. It is difficult, they win duels, they are so aggressive.
“In these types of games they are good, good teams. If not, they wouldn’t have scored three goals at Anfield.
“When you have the chances we had in the 20, 30 minutes the game should have been over. Still, you have to fight on this.”
The City match was the last before October’s international break and the last match United would face without their Brazilian maestro Raphinha, who made his debut a little over two weeks later.
If Guardiola was impressed by the five forwards behind his midfield line in October, he’s going to face new, and more dangerous, problems on Saturday at Etihad Stadium.
