PREMIER LEAGUE | UNITED - CITY
Peter Schmeichel: Pep Guardiola was boring, lucky...and clever
The Manchester United ex-goalkeeper made some interesting comments about the now-Manchester City manager that will add fuel to the fire ahead of the derby on Saturday.
Speaking with Omnisport, ex-Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel was rather disparaging about Guardiola's achievements in Germany where the team won three league titles but failed in the Champions League.
Boring, boring...Bayern
"He was okay at Bayern Munich. I have to say he was okay. For me, personally, he changed a really good, entertaining team to become more boring to watch."
"Whereas Bayern before were very direct, they won the treble, had quick players and were exciting to watch, he made them play more square. He changed the players, but you can't argue with his results."
The great Dane also spoke about the coaching and success of Guardiola in Spain.
Clever but fortunate
"He comes in with an incredible reputation. What he did with Barcelona was fantastic, his work was fantastic, but he was also very lucky he had the players to bring in the philosophy that he has in football,"
"So whereas Alex Ferguson's first priority was 'we have to be able to score goals', for most coaches that's the priority, with Pep it's possession, 'I want to have as much possession as possible'. So the philosophy goes to 'I want to have so much possession that at some point we'll score a goal from that, the goals will come from possession' and that's his philosophy.
"That's what we'll see at Manchester City or he's going to introduce that. He was very lucky he had the players at Barcelona but he was clever in what he did."
Pep's Manchester City head into Saturday's derby with three league wins from three as do rivals United. Something has got to give.
