Let's play without fear, urges Guardiola | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has urged City to play without fear and look to express their huge collective talent in Saturday’s Premier League clash at home to Leeds United.

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Uncharacteristically, the Blues will go into the key Etihad meeting with Daniel Farke’s side on the back of two back-to-back defeats.

Last weekend’s narrow 2-1 loss at Newcastle was then followed by a frustrating 2-0 UEFA Champions League home reverse to Bayer Leverkusen in midweek.

Addressing the media at his pre-match press conference ahead of the visit of Leeds – and reflecting on the lessons of the past few days – the boss was unequivocal about what the key learnings were.

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“We know the competitions are tough. I’m not disappointed about Newcastle, but the other one, yes,” Pep stressed.

“I have a lot of confidence in them -  I have huge value in them as football players.

“[But against Leverkusen] they felt they played not to make mistakes - not to play to do something which is so difficult.

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“In football you have to play offensive, defensive, and you have to try. If you lose in the actions, you did it.

“They played safe and [felt if I make] no mistake I won’t be noticed which is so difficult.

“It was a good lesson for the future.”

City will kick-off on Saturday afternoon lying in third position in the Premier League table, seven points behind leaders Arsenal.

However, with only 12 games of the league campaign gone, the season is still very much in its infancy and less than a third of the way through.

With Saturday’s game being followed by demanding trips to Fulham and Crystal Palace over the next eight days, the focus for the boss is trained on the here and now rather than looking at the gap to the leaders.

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“About the next weeks and the next games, always I have the experience that it’s just about the next game and after that we will see.” Guardiola pointed out.

“I know the distance is already there, and Arsenal is so strong.

“We see it game by game in the Premier League and the other ones and see how they’re getting better as a team.

“We will see.”

City v Leeds app coverage

Our official Man City app allows you to follow all of the action in one place.

Minute-by-minute text updates will begin in our Matchday Centre two hours before kick-off, while our Matchday Live show will begin at around 13:45 (UK).

Shaun Goater will join Cel Spellman, with Natalie Pike, Fabian Delph and Nedum Onouha tuning in from Korea, as the former players offer their expert insight before, during and after the action.

During the game you can also listen to live audio commentary from Alistair Mann and Nicky Weaver, while our text commentary continues.

Make sure to have push notifications turned on, so you can be alerted to key moments in the action, including goals, red cards and the team news.

A quick-hit 2-minute highlights package will be available from 19:00 (UK) while you can sign-in to watch a free 8-minute edit from midnight.

Meanwhile on CITY+, from midnight there’ll be our popular full-match replay as well as our new extended highlights reel showing the best 20 minutes of action from the game.

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