Pep Guardiola doesn’t expect Tottenham to change their tactics against Manchester City despite their significant injury list, recalling his first meeting with Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou in a 2019 friendly with Yokohama F Marinos.
Guardiola has made his admiration for Postecoglou clear as the pair come face-to-face in the technical areas for the first time in a competitive game on Sunday. Their only previous meeting came in 2019, when City were in Japan for a friendly against sister club Yokohama, then managed by Postecoglou.
The City boss recalled how his pre-match preparations for that friendly opened his eyes to Postecoglou’s approach, and he’s since followed the Australian’s progress at Celtic and now Tottenham. Describing Postecoglou as a manager who ‘makes football a better place’, Guardiola insists he doesn’t expect Spurs to abandon their new attacking principles despite missing a number of key forwards through injuries.
Spurs started the season brilliantly, but have lost James Maddison, Richarlison and Micky Van de Ven to injury, while Christian Romero is suspended. While form has tailed off a little, Guardiola remained impressed at how Postecoglou has his players continuing to play attacking football despite their absences.
“He’s already there, in a short time, even the games they didn’t win lately, I’m impressed how good things they do and chances they create,” Guardiola said of his opposite number this week. “They are aggressive in all departments. He came here and you recognise perfectly his team.
“Every team plays for the desire for the manager. He has done it in the past in Japan and in Glasgow with Celtic and now. I think he makes football a better place, people like Ange, because I’m a manager but I’m also a spectator and I enjoy watching them a lot with the approach they have. All Spurs fans and people in England can admit the impact has been quick and really, really good.”
Recalling the 2019 friendly with Postecoglou’s Yokohama, Guardiola explained how he had to warn his players of the test they would face, and how he expects nothing different this weekend.
“If you ask him whether he will change because they are playing against us? Absolutely not,” the manager said. “This is not going to happen. It would be a surprise. I met him just once in a few pre seasons ago when we played Yokohama and Ange was manager. I saw some games before, the first or second pre-season game and I said ‘wow, there are things that I like’.
“I said to the players I know we are not ready because it is pre season but we are going to face a good team who can challenge us. The build-up, how intense their high-pressing, how they use the keeper for the build-up. It was true. We won because, all respect to Yokohama, we had better players.
“I have the feeling it doesn’t matter the result or opponent, home or away, they do what they have to do. That is why I like that. I think that is such an incredible advert for our game and for our sport.
“When two teams they want always to go forward, it’s always nice to watch, all the time. It’s impossible not to see an interesting game when both teams want to try to do it and we saw it immediately.”
Pep Guardiola equally aims dig at Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte’s Park the bus tactics in that last sentence.