Embargoed Press Conference: Manchester City’s No.1 choice goalkeeper revealed by Pep Guardiola | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has issued a clear response when quizzed on who will be Manchester City’s No.1 choice goalkeeper heading into the brand new season.

Manchester City travel to Molineux on Saturday afternoon as they take on Vitor Pereira’s Wolves side to kick-off their brand new Premier League campaign, hoping to far better their performances from the last season.

It has been a slightly more restricted pre-season period for Pep Guardiola’s side, as club staff opted to hand the playing squad a longer holiday calendar off the back of the FIFA Club World Cup and embark on just two pre-season friendlies.

In those two contests, Manchester City recorded a 1-0 win over Preston North End behind-closed-doors at the City Football Academy, before cruising past fellow City Football Group outfit Palermo in Sicily thanks to a 0-3 victory.

As Pep Guardiola took on his first round of media duties of the new campaign, a number of talking points were on the agenda in the second-half of his press conference, perhaps most notably the subject of player sales and the situation in goal.

Here is every word taken out of the embargoed section from the Manchester City manager at the City Football Academy’s media centre on Friday afternoon!

On whether Rodri’s new setback was just bad luck at the FIFA Club World Cup: “Listen, this is a difficult injury. So statistics say that the year after always you have some muscular problems. We tried desperately to avoid it but it’s difficult to know exactly how many minutes, how many games and the other one.

“Of course he’s desperate to play, we need his ambition, his personality, his quality. He was nominated last season the best player in the world so that’s why it’s really, really important to have him back. And for me, seeing him in the training sessions and in the locker rooms makes me smile, makes me so happy and he’s so close.

“As much as he’s not [sustaining] step backs, he’s so close to coming back. But coming back for a few minutes and after more minutes, and take one day’s rest and come back a few minutes and reading that is what is the most difficult thing to know exactly what is the best for him.”

On whether nobody knows how Rodri will really react to a comeback: “Today, all the clubs, we monitor really well the players but also there are the desires of the players that maybe feel, ‘I’m good, I’m ready and maybe not because I’ve been one year out,’ and his life and his passion and his love is playing football.

“And you have to find a way, at the same time, to get the rhythm, he has to play. And in this balance, it not just with him, players that have been with him for a long, long time.”

On whether he knows who is Manchester City’s No.1 goalkeeper is this season: “Right now, Eddie. (So he starts vs Wolves?) If he’s fit, yeah.”

On how the last weeks have been with the number of players Pep Guardiola has at his disposal: “Pre-season is a dream. If you have 40 players, it’s not a problem. Pre-season is a paradise. If you have 45 players, it’s fine – everyone accepts it.

“From tomorrow, I have players who are not selected, that is starting the… not a problem because they are professionals, but it’s not nice. You have to meet the amount that everybody competes and has the chance to play on Sunday.

“So that is when you come up the best of them, but you have a lot of players that every week is at home, at home, it makes no sense. So you have to find the right way.”

On whether there might be some form of reality this weekend if some players don’t travel to Wolves: “No, no. The guys maybe tomorrow don’t play, that doesn’t mean… did you see the calendar?! You didn’t see the calendar. There’s no space, white, between games, so every three or four days we have games, games and games and everybody is going to play.

“Everybody. It’s just these two weeks, they have long weeks and that will be there, but absolutely not. The guys who don’t play are going to play maybe against Spurs. It’s not any signal. I admire them, I like all of them otherwise we will not be here. I would say to the club, ‘I don’t like that player, we will find a solution’. I like all of them, all of them.

“There’s not one that I’m not satisfied to have him here. Even McAtee was happy to have him here. All of them. It’s not about that, absolutely. There’s no signals. It’s just I would love the Premier League to say, ‘You can allow to be on the bench the players that you want’. I would love it because everybody can play, have more alternatives but it’s not the case.”

On whether it’s easier to leave players out vs Wolves if the players know there are too many players and if everyone stays they are going to have to be left out: “Yes, they know it. They’re not stupid. They see how many players are in my position, how many players we have, they know it.”

On whether he expects some players to move on then, or whether they would still be happy to stay: “I don’t know. If they stay, it’s fine but they know it. We spoke about that. They know it. So the reality is that. They know it. To stay, for me it’s fine. It’s not ideal, but it’s my job, I do it. But if they want to play regularly, maybe it’s not going to happen.”

On who he expects to be challenging Manchester City for the Premier League title: “I’ll try to win at Wolves tomorrow, and after we’ll see. We won six Premier League’s together and never said in my first press conference we’re going to win this title or the other one. So, I don’t know. I would like to tell you, but no clue. I don’t have any idea.

“So try to be fit, train, good game, try to apply a little bit what we feel is good for the type of players we have, the way we have to play, suitable for the way we want to change a few things, for the quality of the players that we have. And go. We’ll try.”

On whether there is any disadvantage of being involved at the FIFA Club World Cup: “It is what it is. We had a short preparation but the preparation was good. We didn’t travel. We trained here really good. We’ve had two friendly games and maybe we should [have had] more but we don’t have time.

“And prioritised to train things, concepts for the season because we have a lot of games to play. So that’s why I prefer to stay at home and train good and energy for 11 months that we have ahead of us.”