Local Manchester City fans have once again raised concerns after an interview with Pep Guardiola about his special final ideas emerged.
Guardiola attended a pre-match press conference against Brentford at the Manchester City Football Academy on Sept. 26 (KST).
City, who have already clinched the Premier League title, will play Brentford in the final match of the 2022/23 season at the Brentford Community Stadium at 0:30 a.m. on May 29.
City have already clinched the league title and are set for the FA Cup and UEFA Champions League finals. Winning both finals – the FA Cup against Manchester United and the Champions League against Inter Milan – would make City the second English team to win the treble since Manchester United in 1998/99.
Speaking ahead of the two finals, Guardiola said: “In my experience, the best way to prepare for a final is to have as little contact with other people as possible. We need to have no contact with our physios and cooks. They are working 10-hour days. It’s a tough period,” he said.
“I have to train a little bit, but mainly I spend time with my family before the final. I go to good restaurants and spend time with my family. It’s okay to do anything. We have to be as relaxed as possible and focus on our game.”
On his starting XI for the two finals, he added: “I have a plan for Man United and Inter Milan. We have to prepare differently. We need to see how many players we can utilize,” he said, adding, “I was very impressed with what I saw yesterday between Man U and Chelsea.”
“Anyway, I will be careful, but after yesterday we are preparing as best we can.”
Guardiola’s comments about preparations for the final sparked another round of concern among City fans. One of the reasons for this is the strange starting lineup choices that are only made in finals, known locally as ‘Overthinking’ and in Korea as ‘Myeongjangbun’.안전놀이터
In the UEFA Champions League final of the 2020/21 season, Guardiola played Ilkay Gundogan as a holding midfielder instead of Rodriguez against Chelsea, only to lose the midfield battle and eventually lose 0-1.
Knowing the nightmare that was, City fans took to social media to say, “Elling Holland to left fullback!”, “Ederson to midfield after all”, and “Please, don’t do it again. Kevin De Bruyne is going to play as a fake number 9” and many other worst-case scenarios.