Pep: We’re not used to playing in the sunshine | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has prepared Manchester City for a dry, slow pitch ahead of our Premier League clash with Fulham.

We have the chance to move top of the Premier League if we pick up three points in a difficult game at Craven Cottage at 12:30 (UK).

But with warm spells hitting the country and sunshine forecast for the lunchtime kick-off, Guardiola says the players will face conditions that they are not used to.

“In England, out of 12 months, 10 are winter - it's raining,” he said at his prematch news conference.

“When we arrive in the early games and last games [of the season], it is something we have to think about it and talk to the players about.

“We say ‘it is what it is’. 8pm is completely different to 12:30, so you have to adapt.

“I saw the forecast tomorrow, it’s a sunny day in London, a lovely city so we have to adapt to that situation - playing in another rhythm and another way.

“The passes have to be stronger and faster. To control we have to attack more the ball. It's completely different, it’s not basketball.

“It’s like playing Wimbledon and Roland Garros, the surface is different.  Talk with the tennis players. The speed of the ball is different and it’s the same in football.”

Ahead of the game, Guardiola and his players spent part of the training session at the CFA on an unwatered pitch with a full squad set to be available for the journey to London.

Our performance in the 2-0 win at Nottingham Forest was impacted by conditions and the boss wants the players ready in case there’s something similar.

“Yesterday we trained part of the season with a dry pitch to adapt and to feel it,” he said.

“After we went to another normal one, there is a massive difference. Massive. We have to adapt.

“In six, seven, eight years, we played a few times there and we adapted. The difference it important.”