Pep Guardiola
Pep Guardiola admitted that Manchester City do not have the ‘weapon’ that their title rivals do of a striker that can score 25 goals.
Pep Guardiola said: “Strikers are strikers. They live a little bit outside the team bubble and for themselves. But these are the most difficult players to take. We had the privilege to have Sergio for many years. Unfortunately for the last year-and-a-half he was out with injuries and we could not use him much. We survived without him in a good way in the way we played. There are two options that we have right now: complaining, or saying we have exceptional players. We don’t have this weapon that others teams have like Chelsea, United or Tottenham or other teams so we have to use what we can do as a team. We don’t have a player to score 25 league goals for himself so we have to do it as a team. This is what we will try this season.”
Guardiola praised Lukaku when he was at United, although City did not get involved in any race to sign him this summer to give Chelsea a relatively clear run at the Inter Milan striker. While the City manager believes that the 28-year-old is a better player for having worked with Antonio Conte, he remains up for the challenge of testing his improved squad up against Chelsea’s – four months after the Champions League final.
Pep Guardiola said: “I’m not going to deny what a player Romelu Lukaku is. He was in the Premier League, he made his first step at Chelsea and then especially at Everton he made a step forward under Ronald Koeman and after he went to United. At Inter Milan he took another step. Antonio Conte has the ability to improve every single player that works with him and he came back to the champions of Europe. The team was already so strong and with him is now stronger. How he plays with long balls, how he is supported by the attacking midfielders and wingbacks and with the quality of players they have in the middle to put the balls between the lines. It is a stronger team than last season but this is the challenge. I’m not going to say I’m sad or disappointed for the squad we have.”
