‘I have to learn Russian or Uzbek to communicate with him!’ Pep on Khusanov’s horror start on Man City debut | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola says he hasn’t spoken with new defender Abdukodir Khusanov, who endured a nightmare first 10 minutes on his Manchester City debut.

Khusanov is the first Uzbek to play in the Premier League and he was at fault as Chelsea took the lead inside three minutes at the Etihad.

The defender compounded things just moments later and was cautioned for a late lunge but he steadied himself as City fought back to win 3-1.

When asked if he considered replacing the 20-year-old inside of five minutes, Guardiola joked: “Well, I have to learn Russian or Uzbek to communicate with him.”

“It’s not easy for him. He trains once and then to play against [Nicolas] Jackson, Cole [Palmer], [Noni] Madueke, [Jadon] Sancho. It’s a process when you buy a player this young.

“He’ll learn. These kinds of actions are the best lesson you can take.

“He doesn’t speak English so I didn’t speak to him. He’ll be fine. He only made one, two trainings. I didn’t want to push John [Stones] returning from injury with Wednesday’s game [vs Club Brugge].

“The players were together. That was massively important. Any player can make a mistake. The fans always support the new players. He’s so young. He will learn.”

In contrast, fellow debutant Omar Marmoush impressed on his first appearance for City and Guardiola has already identified his ability to link up with his new teammates.

“He [Marmoush] was really good. That connection with other players and incredible movement,” he continued.

“It’s the first game and he deals with the change and makes unbelievable movements.

“I think [Ilkay] Gundo, and [Mateo] Kova, and Bernie [Silva], they should be more clever in the movements with the high line that Chelsea had. But it’s a question of time and knowing each other.

“At the end, we don’t know the movements of him, the movement he likes, it needs time. But he played 75 minutes good, cannot play Wednesday, it’s important to make a debut and win.”