Pep Guardiola says Manchester City will suffer against Newport County in FA Cup
Written by News on 15/02/2019
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola expects his side to “suffer” against Newport County and believes the League Two club are better than the Premier League leaders in “some areas”.
City will look to maintain their challenge for the quadruple on Saturday night when they travel to south Wales in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
Newport defeated Premier League opposition in Leicester in round three before overcoming Middlesbrough in a replay earlier this month.
Guardiola is expecting a tough test against the Exiles on their notorious playing surface at Rodney Parade.
“Both their strikers score goals, they are incredible from set pieces and throw-ins. They go for the second balls and use the channels to put the ball into the box and make us defend deeper,” said Guardiola.
“Especially in our box we are going to suffer because they are taller and stronger than us, so in some areas they are better than us.
“We have to try and bring our game in the way we are stronger than them. Which team is going to control these areas and bring their own game? That will be the advantage to go through.”
County share their stadium with two rugby clubs, Newport Gwent Dragons and Newport RFC, and much has been made of the pitch at Rodney Parade in the build-up to the match.
Guardiola rubbished claims City had churned up a pitch at their training base in order to replicate the conditions and insists his players can cope with the surface, having played Tottenham at Wembley the day after the Philadelphia Eagles faced the Jacksonville Jaguars in the NFL.
“We have to adapt, it is what it is,” he said. “We accept the challenge. We played in the Premier League against Tottenham when days before there was two NFL games.
“That happened in the Premier League, why not for a team in the lower division? We have to accept it.”
Guardiola ruled Vincent Kompany [muscle] and Benjamin Mendy [knee] out of this weekend’s match and suggested he will look to rotate his starting line-up from the team that beat Chelsea 6-0 in the Premier League on Sunday.
“We are going to play a strong squad. We have a few injuries unfortunately but the other ones are fit,” he said.
“Of course a few players who didn’t play the last game [will play] but I prepare to try to win the game with the best squad possible.”
(c) Sky News 2019: Pep Guardiola says Manchester City will suffer against Newport County in FA Cup
