England midfielder Fabian Delph says he has learned more during his
short time under new Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola than over the
rest of his career.
Delph endured an injury-ravaged debut season at the Etihad Stadium
last term and was felt in some quarters to have an uncertain future
after Guardiola replaced Manuel Pellegrini at the helm.
But the 26-year-old, who missed out on a place in England’s ill-fated
Euro 2016 campaign, has relished working under the former Barcelona and
Bayern Munich boss and lavished praise on his methods.
“When I first met the new manager, I did feel a bit of a lift. He’s
been fantastic from day one, knew everybody’s names from day one,” Delph
told BBC Sport as City prepare for Monday’s International
Champions Cup clash against Manchester United in Beijing. “I’d say I’ve
learnt more in these three weeks than I have throughout my whole career.
“The systems that he’s trying to implement are unbelievable, the
intensity that he’s brought to the group is frightening. He’s a
perfectionist and, to be fair, everyone is pulling together and trying
to implement what he wants us to do on the training field.
“It’s been a big learning curve. It’s been amazing for me and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season.”
City limped to a fourth-place finish last year, having finished a
distant second to Chelsea in 2014-15 as Pellegrini failed to build on a
memorable title triumph in his first season in charge.
Guardiola is famed for his teams’ fluid attacking football but
experienced full-back Gael Clichy believe the Catalan coach will bring
added steel to a side who were defensively suspect for much of
Pellegrini’s reign.
“What he wants is for his team to play offensive football and for
that he wants the full-backs to support without getting beat when we
lose the ball,” Clichy explained on City’s official website.
“That’s something new as before we were quite open and if you look at
our games from last year we were conceding a lot of goals on the
counter-attack because we were an offensive team and open. I guess he’s
trying to make us as offensive as previous years but just as solid at
the back.
“He doesn’t want the onus to just be on the back four to defend but
it’s the responsibility of the whole team to get the ball back quickly
when we lose it. We will see how it goes but it’s a very good start –
we’ve enjoyed every single session with and without the ball.
Clichy added:
“It’s an amazing time to be here – he’s the kind of
manager who will make you a better player whether you’re a goalkeeper, a
defender, a midfielder or a striker.”