Pep Guardiola has been so efficient that he has saved even the time to rest after officially joining Manchester City.

After rejecting the Christmas break offered to him by the team, he soon went to the club and started working.

Manchester City are not in good shape right now, and Guardiola does not dare to delay any more time.

He needs to get into work as soon as possible and help the team solve the problem.

And with the winter break just around the corner, he also needs to find the right players in the transfer market to fill the holes in various positions in the global squad.

This is a lot of work, and the time is short, so it must be dealt with as soon as possible.

Upon arriving at City's training base, Pep Guardiola summoned his players, gave them a brief lecture, and then asked the assistant coach to arrange daily training while he stood on the sidelines and carefully watched the players' condition.

Manchester City's injury situation has been serious this season, and many players on the training ground have just recovered from injuries and are undergoing recovery training.

Seeing Kroos training with the ball, Guardiola asked his assistant beside him:

"How has Kroos been lately?"

The midfield has always been the most important piece of Pep Guardiola's team, and many of his tactics have been played in a few positions in the midfield.

"The recovery is not very fast, and the players seem to have a serious resistance."

The assistant coach and the physiotherapist on the side glanced at each other and replied truthfully.

"Resistance?"

Pep Guardiola was a little confused, he knew Kroos' character, he was a very professional player.

How could he be resistant?

'Well, this is the first winter he's experienced without a winter break, and not only does the team have no holidays, but they also have to train and prepare for the game, and even have games to play on Christmas Day, which is not very suitable for a lot of players who have just arrived in the Premier League.

Pep Guardiola nodded his head to indicate that he understood.

Manchester City's next game is on 26 December, the day after Christmas.

This kind of schedule is indeed a bit anti-human.

However, unlike other leagues, the Premier League is a competition organised by the Premier League, and in order to pursue the ultimate commercialization, they have chosen to hold the match on Christmas Day, which is the most trafficked.

This will attract more fans to the game and will also capture the broadcast market in other leagues during the off-season.

In terms of event promotion and broadcast revenue, such an arrangement can bring the most benefits.

But for the players, the Christmas fast train schedule will be very painful and disgusting for them.

Everyone else is on vacation, but they still have to play, and it's not a normal schedule, it's an extremely dense schedule.

The Premier League is eager to schedule a few more games between the Christmas and New Year's holidays, completely ignoring the lives of the players.

It's strange if the players aren't disgusted!

Players from home England may be fine, they have grown up in this environment and are used to this arrangement.

But for players from other countries, especially those who are new to the Premier League, it is normal and common for them to be inappropriate and resistant in the first few seasons.

Not to mention, the Christmas Express schedule is a period of high incidence of injuries to players.

"If his injury is not a big problem, give him a week off and let him rest!"

"Huh?"

Hearing Guardiola's big hand wave, he was about to give Kroos a holiday, and the assistant coaches next to him were dumbfounded.

Coach, do you know what you're talking about?

Our team is now full of injuries, and there are few healthy people.

Kroos can't start the full game now, but it's okay to come on as a substitute in the second half.

This will not only help him integrate into the team as quickly as possible, but also give the rest of the midfielders in the team a breather.

It's better to let him go, and there will be fewer players in the team to use, and the rest of the players will have a heavier burden!

"Let's go and ask to see who else wants to take a vacation, and those who want to take a vacation will be given three days off!"

Pep Guardiola does not seem to have the intention of listening to persuasion, not only does he not listen to persuasion, but he also wants to extend the holiday policy to the whole team.

Today is Christmas Eve, and tomorrow is Christmas.

As the most important holiday in Western society, it is indeed a bit unreasonable to let the players sweat on the pitch at such a time.

"Coach, if the whole team is given a holiday, what about the game on December 26?"

"Hehe, don't worry, don't we still have a reserve team and a youth team?!"

Guardiola looked like he was in the chest, but he turned out to be in the reserve team to raise people.

Several assistant coaches were collectively speechless, and the players of the reserve team and the youth team were the main force, is this an initiative to admit defeat?

The Christmas Express in the Premier League has begun, with Manchester City having three tough games to play in the coming week.

This dense schedule is a high-risk period for most Premier League teams to drop points, with Manchester City now three points behind Chelsea in the table.

If they don't play well in those three games, they will probably be pulled even further.

At this critical moment of chasing points, Guardiola has to give up a game as soon as he comes up, and it is his debut.

He is not afraid that he will lose when the time comes, and the fans and reporters will let him walk around without food?

Pep Guardiola is really not afraid!

It's just one game, if you lose, you lose, what's the big deal.

On the contrary, if you can win the favor of the players, improve your support in the team, and reverse the current low morale and state of the players, it will be a win!

So, after dropping this sentence, Guardiola turned around and left, ready to go to the reserve team to select people.

The coaches and players of the reserve team were very excited when they saw Pep Guardiola coming, and even the training on the field became more active!

This is the new head coach of the team, and the purpose of his arrival in the reserve team is self-evident, he must be here to check the condition of the players and prepare to promote them to the first team!

For all the players in Manchester City's development squad, playing for the first team is something they dream of.

Therefore, such an opportunity cannot be easily missed, and the players are all working very hard to impress Pep Guardiola.

Pep Guardiola chatted with the head coach of the development squad on the sidelines and watched the performance of the players on the training pitch.

These young players have been working hard since he came to the pitch, but most of them have shown average quality, and in Guardiola's vision, these people obviously can't get into his eyes.

Pep Guardiola sighed in his heart, when he was at Barcelona, the talented players in La Masia's training camp grabbed a lot of them.

But on Manchester City's side, it's hard to find a player who can get past it.

Of course, the La Masia Academy has a wide range of materials and a greater reputation, and every year a large number of parents from all over the world come to La Masia with their children for trials.

Only the most outstanding children are likely to stay there, so it is not surprising that La Masia's genius is numerous.

Compared with Barcelona, Manchester City's youth training has only gradually been on track in recent years, and it lacks foundation, so there are no too good seedlings.

Youth training still needs to be grasped, after all, this is the foundation of the team's long-term hematopoiesis.

Good players in the future will only get more and more expensive, and blindly relying on buying people to build a team will only become more and more expensive, and in the end it will drag down the team's financial system.

This is obviously not a long-term solution!

There are very few players who meet Guardiola's requirements or make him shine, but Guardiola has come and gone, and it is impossible to leave empty-handed.

So he had to lower his standards.

If you were to select players based on the criteria that would stand in the top five leagues, it would seem that a few of these people looked good.

"Well, this striker is good, what's his name?"

Pep Guardiola pointed to a young black striker in his early eights, and asked the head coach of the development team.

"He? His name is Clerch Iheanacho, he is 18 years old, Nigerian, he has good talent, he is a good seedling of a striker! ”

Pep Guardiola nodded: "Transfer him to the first team to play a few games!" ”

After saying this, he saw another defender who was doing well defensively.

"What's the name of this defender?"

"Tosin Adarabioyo, he has great physical fitness, he has good defensive awareness, he will play more games in the future, he will be a good defender!"

"Well, bring him with you!"

Pep Guardiola promoted five young players to the first team in one go, and the rest is really unsightly, no matter how bad the first team is, he doesn't dare to use these people.

The five players selected were extremely excited, and each of them felt like they had been hit by happiness.

They felt like they were in a dream and couldn't believe they had been chosen by Coach Guardiola!

This is a world-class handsome!

As for the players who were not selected, they all looked very disappointed.

They will not suspect Pep Guardiola's eyes, and the other party is unlikely to look away.

Since they are not favored, then it means that their talent and strength are really not good.

This has made many people realize that it will be difficult for them to establish themselves in Manchester City in the future, and they may be able to consider moving away and trying their luck with other teams.

By the time Pep Guardiola returned to the first-team training base with a handful of young players who had been promoted from the reserves, the assistant coach had already registered.

There are many players who want these 3 days of vacation, after all, who can withstand the temptation of the Christmas holiday?

Pep Guardiola had anticipated this situation, so he appeared very calm.

But when he saw that Lin Quan's name was also among them, the calmness on his face completely disappeared.

"Ahem, do you want to take these three days off too?"

Pep Guardiola looked for an opportunity to find Lin Quan between training and talk to him about it.

"Yes, I promised to take Maria and Valentina to the playground and the aquarium!"

Looking at Guardiola's appearance of scratching his head, Lin Quan tried hard to hold back a smile and replied seriously.

Hearing Lin Quan's words, Guardiola wanted to stop talking, stopping and talking.

"If someone is willing to accompany us to the playground, I don't think Valentina and they may be able to accommodate and postpone the time until after New Year's Day."

Guardiola nodded again and again: "No problem, I have time after New Year's Day, and I will definitely take them out to play when the time comes!" ”

Lin Quan nodded and crossed his name off the list of leave applications.

It's hard to drive fast on Christmas, but with last year's experience, I can stick with it this year.

Especially now that the team is in a very critical period, Guardiola is dying, but he can't really watch him die.

"So many main players of the team have been suspended, and the next game will not work without you!"

After seeing Lin Quan cross out his name, Guardiola breathed a sigh of relief.

Lin Quan couldn't help but glance at him and asked:

"You've been working hard since you came up, and you're still making it so big, aren't you really afraid of overturning?"

It's really not going to die if you don't die, Guardiola wants to buy people's hearts, which Lin Quan can understand.

It's just that he doesn't think Guardiola needs to be in such a hurry, he can take his time little by little, and there is no need to make such a big move as soon as he comes up.

Just like he engaged in scientific research in the Champions League knockout round, this kind of thing is usually done in the league, and playing like this on a key occasion such as the Champions League knockout round, if he succeeds, he will naturally be blown to the sky, but if he fails, he will be scolded miserably!

Guardiola nodded:

"It's a lie to say I'm not afraid, but I've studied the video footage of the opponent's game and have some ideas, so I can try it when the time comes, even if some of the main players can't play, we may not lose."

The next game will be his first game for Manchester City, and the attention will be very high, so Guardiola naturally doesn't want to make a big start for himself.

In the next game, Manchester City's opponent is West Bromwich Albion, a team that is not strong.

He had greeted the club's staff before, asked for the footage of the opponent's matches in the recent period, and did enough research.

Pep Guardiola thinks he has a certain certainty, so he dares to do so.

Of course, he can't play with an all-bench lineup, and Lin Quan, the heart of Manchester City, has to be on the pitch because that's the key to his victory.

……

26 December, Manchester, Etihad Stadium.

It was the first game since Christmas and Guardiola's debut since joining Manchester City.

The match received unprecedented attention, with attendance at the Etihad Stadium so high that there was not a single empty seat in the stadium.

Manchester City fans have been looking forward to this game for a long time!

This was Pep Guardiola's first game since arriving at Manchester City, and there is a lot of concern about the changes his arrival has brought to Manchester City.

Therefore, the Premier League officially arranged the live broadcast of this game, and also chose prime time for the match and live broadcast.

Obviously, even Premier League officials don't want to let go of such publicity and promotion opportunities.

However, when the two sides announced the starting list for this game before the game, both the fans who came to watch the game and the reporters who came to cover Guardiola's first game were dumbfounded!

What the hell is Manchester City doing?

Why don't so many of these players in this starting list not know each other?

(End of chapter)