Guardiola baffled at anybody practising tackles

Sarah Winterburn

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has once again expressed confusion about the concept of practising tackles.

Guardiola came under fire last year when his City team were beaten 4-2 by Leicester City and the Spaniard played down the importance of tackles.

City go back to Leicester this weekend top of the Premier League and unbeaten, but with only Bourmemouth and Burnley having made fewer tackles. Other statistics from their season have been phenomenal.

“Tackles are so important because they are part of the game, but they are not the most important issue of the game from my point of the game,” said Guardiola.

“When you go down in a tackle, you are in trouble. Try to focus on playing better with the ball and you will avoid a lot of tackles.

“But the reality is we didn’t lose at Leicester because we didn’t tackle. We lost because Leicester were better and we played not good.

“I don’t know that you have to spend time practising tackles. I don’t spend my time practising tackles. Tackles are like one guy has the talent to do tackles, one guy has the talent to do headers, and one guy shoots and scores a lot of goals. But I never spend time practising tackles.”