Guardiola: My players have permission to play awful

Joe Williams

Pep Guardiola says his players “have permission to play awful” while they adjust to his new system at Manchester City.

City extended their 100 per cent record in the Premier League to six wins out of six with a 3-1 victory against Swansea at the Liberty Stadium.

Sergio Aguero scored twice to take his total for the season to 11 goals in all competitions and help send Guardiola’s side four points clear at the top of the standings.

Despite his unblemished start to the season, Guardiola still thinks his side can improve as the campaign rolls on.

When asked whether his side had reached their peak, the former Bayern Munich and Barcelona boss responded: “No, we are far, we are far. It would be boring: if we are close I can go back home.”

“We are here to get better, when you think it’s done why should you keep going? It never ends in football. Always you can play better.

“Individual performance, collective performance, the reason why we play better… the opponents always create different things every game, how we solve that during the game, we don’t have time before the game, that’s why the game is nice.

“I said many times I am so happy, because they work a lot, they know that all the staff are working 24 hours for them.”

Guardiola admits he doesn’t mind it if City put in poor performances as long as they work their hardest to implement his new system.

“They have permission to play awful. They don’t have permission to not run, but they have all the permission to play awful because that is necessary to play like this, because we are going to be better the next time,” the Spaniard added.

“From the beginning, the first training session, for many people here they start to work a lot and with a lot of personality, so we are so happy how they live their jobs, their lives as football players. That’s why we are able to win those games, especially today [against Swansea].”