Leicester City Vs Man City - Pep Guardiola defends Jack Grealish after underwhelming cameo in Community Shield defeat

Leicester City Vs Man City – Pep Guardiola has warned that his Manchester City team aren’t ready for the start of the season next weekend and that, like last year, they will inevitably begin slowly.

With so many Brazilian and England internationals in his squad, players who reached the Copa America and Euro 2020 finals respectively and who will only return to training this weekend, Guardiola says it is impossible to be match-ready for next Sunday’s season opener against Tottenham.

Guardiola said: ‘How can we be ready when the players are training three or four sessions? I would love to have the Brazilian guys and the English players. But they finished the season three weeks ago, so they have to rest.

‘It’s just adapt, adapt, adapt. That’s what we did last season when we started a little bit flat in terms of results. But after a while, we were there and started to win. With what I saw today I’m incredibly confident that many good things are going to happen this season.’

However, the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager urged the Citizens to be patient stating Jack Grealish: ‘He was really good. We just need to provide him and let him express his quality. He didn’t come for 25 minutes, he came for five-six years.’