‘Going to play a lot’ Pep Guardiola issues Savinho order after Man City win

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola spoke about Brazilian winger Savinho and France international Rayan Cherki

Pep Guardiola praised substitute Savinho for an improved cameo in Manchester City’s win over Sunderland as he drilled home the importance of running to all of his players. The Brazilian earned the anger of his manager at Fulham in the week and ‘doesn’t like to listen’ but showed that he had got the message.

It was typical of Guardiola to pick out the Brazilian, turning a question about Rayan Cherki and his rabona to set up Phil Foden into an answer about defensive responsibilities needed to stay in the team. Cherki was making his first start since the Newcastle defeat, and the City boss hopes that he has picked up what is needed while sitting on the bench.

If Cherki had the headlines from the 3-0 win over Sunderland, Guardiola ended up talking about the improvement he had seen in Savinho off the bench as the Blues put in what the manager called one of their best performances of the season across the 90 minutes. Both attacking players – and anyone else in the team – will sleep on Saturday clear on what they have to do to get the opportunity to star again.

“Rayan has always played in his career better than all his mates from 12, 13, 14, 15 years old, and I have the feeling he has done whatever he wants. Here, he has to do what he has to do for the team and when he is able to do it he will play a lot of minutes for many years at this club because he has special quality – but he has to do it,” the manager said.

“Maybe he has realised when he hasn’t played much, on the bench, maybe he has to realise that it is so important to do it. There was an action in Fulham when Savinho went and crossed for Erling to head onto the post and continued, and he didn’t run back. He was there, and I told him. Today he lost one or two balls and in two seconds he was a full-back.

“Savinho is going to play a lot of minutes. They know the secret of the team and after the quality of Savinho and the quality of Rayan I don’t care, but they have do the things to make the team stable and try and try. That’s why Bernardo runs all the time, and Phil runs all the time, and Jeremy is improving a lot. That is the key.

“Today, I was incredibly pleased for the 15-20 minutes of Savinho. Two actions where he lost the ball he was a machine. He doesn’t like to listen but I had to tell him. Because the incredible cross [at Fulham] could have been 6-2 or 6-3 but we lost the ball and you have to work. You come from the bench, you have to run double because the other guys are tired.

“Today he has done it three times like a machine. Savinho is going to play a lot of minutes. He’s going to play with us.”