Manchester City midfielder Kevin de Bruyne has given a fascinating insight into Pep Guardiola's state of mind in training, just one day before their Premier League clash against Manchester United.
The Blues completely outplayed their local rivals from start to finish in one of the most one-sided Manchester derbies in living memory last weekend.
With just seven minutes on the clock, City took the lead thanks to a comical own goal from Eric Bailly.
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The Citizens continued to dominate in large spells and just before the half-time whistle, Bernardo Silva made it 2-0 as United struggled to contain the threat of De Bruyne and co.
It was a straightforward affair at Old Trafford for Guardiola's men, who completed 753 passes throughout the tie - the most any team has completed in a Premier League match against United since the 2003-04 campaign.
So how did they prepare for such a dominant performance? Well, midfielder Kevin de Bruyne claims manager Pep Guardiola didn't know how United were going to play, so stopped Friday's training session after just 10 minutes.
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"The day before a game we usually train tactically, based on how the opponent play," he told the MIDMID podcast on Youtube.
"Before United, Pep said: 'We don't know how they are going to play. We shall see'. And we stopped training after 10 minutes or so.
"Often Pep knows how the opponent is going to play. This time he didn't know, so he didn't know what to do.
"We have done what we always do, but he didn't know beforehand if they would play with 5 at the back. With four. A diamond in the middle. With 3 upfront."
Despite the lack of training session before visiting Old Trafford, Pep Guardiola's side hardly broke sweat in the game and dominated from the off.
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Thoughts on De Bruyne's comments? Is this the reality behind Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's tactics?
Let us know in the comments.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: Manchester City, Football, Manchester United, Pep Guardiola, Premier League, Kevin de Bruyne
