Pep Guardiola threw his new signings Abdukodir Khusanov and Omar Marmoush into the deep end over the weekend when Manchester City hosted Chelsea at the Etihad in Premier League competition.
Khusano, 20, painted a picture of a nervous wreck, which Chelsea capitalised upon after just three minutes to go ahead in the game. Luckily, City would come back to a 3 – 1 win but Khusanov still had to be carried by the rest of his team because of the nerves that prevented him from showing what made him one of the world’s brightest young defenders.
He also received applause from the fans during his substitutione arly int he second half which showed him that he was welcome to the Etihad as their new centreback.
Guardiola, meanwhile, had to field questions about his decision to throw the young Uzbek into the deep end despite him just arriving at the club a week earlier. In the course of his answer, he noted that the 20-year-old would get better as time goes on.
“What I thought was it is not the best start, right? He will take the lessons; he is young and has come for many years,” Pep pointed out. “It is not easy. I love the reaction of his mates. He made one training session. He will learn. He is young and he will take a lesson from that.”
“He doesn’t speak English. In that situation there isn’t much to say, he knows he made a mistake. What can I say – don’t make a mistake! He knows it!,” the City boss added.
He was also asked about his decision to“Marmoush, Vitor [Reis] and Khusanov cannot play on Wednesday and John needs the rhythm.
“We have a final on Wednesday with our people and John is important [which is why I made the change.]” replace Khusanov with John Stones, whose fitness was called into question before the match.
Meanwhile, City’s other debutant, Omar Marmoush, got high praise from Erling Haaland after the game. “I think especially in the first-half you can see he has something special, the Norway international said. “There’s a reason City brought him because he has something special. He got straight in the team and It’s about getting to know him as soon as possible because there are so many important games coming.
“It’s about giving him confidence and he’s going to be a fantastic player for us. It’s always nice [to have new faces]. I’ve been a new player before trying to come in with a different energy and different personality.
