Pep Guardiola suggested that he may have to find a way of fitting Julian Alvarez into his plans alongside Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland.
Haaland started again up front at Fulham as he has done ahead of Alvarez whenever he has been fit, and notched his 50th goal of the campaign in all competitions in the 2-1 win. However, the victory was down to a matchwinning performance from Alvarez behind him, who starred in the absence of the injured De Bruyne.
Guardiola was full of praise for the ability and character of Alvarez when he spoke after the game, and indicated that he may be playing his way into a regular starting position even when De Bruyne returns. The manager conceded that his team were not as good in their attacks as they usually are, but put that down to the conditions of the pitch.
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"If you play almost all the games to be world champion with Argentina, where there are a thousand, million exceptional players and if he is able to play there it is because he has something unique," he said. "But he helped me a lot to understand that maybe in the future I have to adjust something to make them both, and Kevin, to make them play.
"Because especially in tight games with five in the back to have them involved there it is so important for us, really really important for us. It’s not just the goal and the penalty, but it is the intensity in the pressure, it is keeping the ball, it is the vision because he is an incredible, exceptional player, not just scoring goals.
"He knows exactly where are the other players and the movements, everything he does. But today for the actions on the transitions the grass was so, so long, even for them - I’m not complaining, everyone at home can decide what they want to do - but when Erling for example drives with the ball, some passes always stopped the rhythm, and that’s why our transitions today were not as effective as normal."
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