United Kingdom Rugby Shop<\/a> <\/p>\nManchester City boss Pep Guardiola has hailed Ilkay Gundogan as “an exceptional player”, describing him as one of the smartest and most versatile midfielders in Europe.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Germany international has proved to be a key figure in the Premier League champions’ pursuit of a third successive crown this season as they look to write further history in English football.<\/p>\n
With City struck by an injury crisis, Gundogan has proven his worth above the call of duty as a makeshift operator across Guardiola’s starting XI to provide cover where needed.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old’s contributions have not gone unnoticed by his coach either, who was effusive in his praise for the former Borussia Dortmund star.<\/p>\n
Speaking at his pre-match press conference ahead of his side’s clash with Southampton on Saturday, the Spaniard gave an impressive appraisal of Gundogan’s talents.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is such an intelligent player,\u201d he stated.\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s one of the qualities I appreciate the most, intelligence – the players who understand everything that happens during the game and solve it as quick as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can play in many roles. He can play close to the box as the guy who scores the goals. He has that personality, especially in that position.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs [a] holding midfielder, I didn\u2019t expect he would be so consistent in that role, defending that position, but he is.\u00a0He is an exceptional player. He is one of Europe\u2019s best, in fact.”<\/p>\n
Guardiola admitted that he hadn’t thought to use Gundogan in the anchor midfield role until last season\u00a0and that he had tried other methods to plug the gap during Fernandinho’s injury lay-offs last year.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes it happens when you don\u2019t have alternatives,” he added.\u00a0\u201cSometimes when Ferna couldn\u2019t play, I used other players. I didn\u2019t use [Gundogan]\u00a0because I didn\u2019t realise.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cLook how wrong I was! After, when I didn\u2019t have an alternative in that position, I played him and said \u2018wow\u2019, how aggressive he is without the ball and knows the movements he has to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is not a typical midfielder, but we need quality on the ball, not just defending.\u00a0We didn\u2019t have any doubts about his talent with the ball.<\/p>\n
“Last season, when Ferna was injured more than usual, he played there and was outstanding, in all aspects of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Germany international has proven his worth time and again this year, with his manager filled with warm praise for his efforts in 2019-20 Click Here: United Kingdom Rugby Shop Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has hailed Ilkay Gundogan as “an exceptional player”, describing him as one of the smartest and most versatile midfielders in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}