Elite football managers have always been notoriously economical with the truth during their prearranged Press conferences, the higher up the management echelon you go, the more 'vague' the communication often is. Manchester's leading newspaper, The Manchester Evening News asked the following question as a result of what their City's best football club manager had said.
"Crazy as this would have sounded a couple of months ago, do David Moyes’ West Ham represent a bigger challenge than Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and friends? Well, yes, if recent evidence is anything to go by". They then proceeded to quote City manager Pep Guardiola. “We know which team we are going to face. They are doing incredibly well this season,” Guardiola said before making an honest admission over the 2-1 win against the Hammers in last season’s corresponding fixture. “I think last season at home, if there was a game where we did not deserve to win it was against West Ham. “They were much better. We won for two actions, but they were better than us.”
Is this Pep playing mind games ahead of Sunday's match? It is difficult to say, he was definitely magnanimous if defeat when Hammers knocked his team out of the Carabou Cup, so perhaps his comments are genuine, but you can bet your bottom dollar that he has Hammers firmly in his sights as he prepares his team ahead of the 'top four' game.
You see, that final sentence is in itself is such a strange utterance, 'top four' fixture involving West Ham and Manchester City! OK the likelihood is that this match will end up as a victory for the home side, Kevin De Bruyne is unlikely to feature as he continues his recovery from coronavirus and Jack Grealish is battling to return to fitness, but City have an embarrassment of riches to call upon and will unleash a raft of talent against a Hammers side that looked less than impressive on their last Premier League outing.
Ironically, this 'high profile game will NOT be shown live on TV in the UK, fans will no doubt find their own way to stream the match and see what the rest of the world sees. City when they are firing on all cylinders are unstoppable, Hammers fans can only City have a misfire on the day. LNIs Pep Playing Mind Games-Or Speaking The Truth?
Elite football managers have always been notoriously economical with the truth during their prearranged Press conferences, the higher up the management echelon you go, the more 'vague' the communication often is. One of Manchester's newspapers asked the following question.
"Crazy as this would have sounded a couple of months ago, do David Moyes’ West Ham represent a bigger challenge than Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and friends? Well, yes, if recent evidence is anything to go by". They then proceeded to quote City manager Pep Guardiola. “We know which team we are going to face. They are doing incredibly well this season,” Guardiola said before making an honest admission over the 2-1 win against the Hammers in last season’s corresponding fixture. “I think last season at home, if there was a game where we did not deserve to win it was against West Ham. “They were much better. We won for two actions, but they were better than us.”
Is this Pep playing mind games ahead of Sunday's match? It is difficult to say, he was definitely magnanimous if defeat when Hammers knocked his team out of the Carabou Cup, so perhaps his comments are genuine, but you can bet your bottom dollar that he has Hammers firmly in his sights as he prepares his team ahead of the 'top four' game.
You see, that final sentence is in itself is such a strange utterance, 'top four' fixture involving West Ham and Manchester City! OK the likelihood is that this match will end up as a victory for the home side, Kevin De Bruyne is unlikely to feature as he continues his recovery from coronavirus and Jack Grealish is battling to return to fitness, but City have an embarrassment of riches to call upon and will unleash a raft of talent against a Hammers side that looked less than impressive on their last Premier League outing.
Ironically, this 'high profile game will NOT be shown live on TV in the UK, fans will no doubt find their own way to stream the match and see what the rest of the world sees. City when they are firing on all cylinders are unstoppable, Hammers fans can only City have a misfire on the day. LN
