Pep Guardiola suggested that tactical tweaks to the Manchester City team were behind Joao Cancelo's loan move to Bayern Munich.
Cancelo has been a key player for City over the last couple of years but started just three of 10 matches since the World Cup as he fell out of favour. As Guardiola demanded full effort from everyone even if they weren't playing, Cancelo's inability to hide his disappointment at not playing did not help him get back into the team.
It still came as a surprise to many to see Cancelo depart on deadline day, but the decision was taken to allow the player to leave and go to Bayern Munich on loan. The German side have an option to sign the player - who bagged an assist on his debut - at the end of the season for £61.6million.
Also read: Every word from Guardiola press conference
Guardiola did not rule out the player returning next season as he paid tribute to his quality. But he accepted that Cancelo wanted to leave, and preferred to let him go rather than keep an unhappy player as he looks to continue with his different style of football.
"I wish him the very best. He has four months [in Munich] and next season I don't know what's going to happen," he said. "He has been an incredible figure in the last two Premier Leagues that we won. After the World Cup, we started to play in some different patterns and I liked what I watched and I decided to give more time to those on the pitch.
"Everyone has his own character. He loves to play, he trains the best and in this situation he didn't play much in the last few games.
"He needs to play to be happy and we decided together for all three parties to let him move. He wants to play every single game and hopefully he can have that in Munich."
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