Pep Guardiola has lavished praise on his Manchester City players for their drastic improvement following their emphatic 5-2 Club World Cup win over Juventus on Thursday night.
The Premier League side were impressive as they secured victory, with Jeremy Doku, Erling Haaland, Phil Foden, Savinho and a Pierre Kalulu own goal giving them all three points.
It means City are now through to the knockout stages of the Club World Cup as they look to win the revamped competition, with Al Hilal up next in the round of 16.
Last term, in the Premeir League, Guardiola's men struggled.
Pep Guardiola has lavished praise on his Manchester City players for their drastic improvement following their emphatic 5-2 Club World Cup win over Juventus on Thursday night
REUTERS
They were certainly a far cry from the swashbuckling team that has dominated English football ever since Guardiola's appointment back in 2016.
Now, however, they appear to be playing at the peak of their powers once again.
And Guardiola has shed light on his team's impressive turnaround in form, with the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss insisting they're benefitting from having everyone available.
He said: “Today was more or less a final, we talked about that. It doesn’t matter what happened, the first target was to qualify, but we never know if it’s better to finish first or second.
"It’s how we play every game, friendly and official game, to win it. Today we did it, that’s what I’m pleased about.
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“The players know it was the first time in a long time that we performed the way we performed.
“Today we adjusted a few things and the performance was really good against an incredibly strong team that made an incredible impact in the first two games as well.
“I’m really pleased because the most important thing is the players have to realise what we have to do to back what we were the last decade.
“Last season we had an incredible squad and team but we were injured, 50 per cent of the players.
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Man City were impressive as they dispatched Juventus at the Club World Cup
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"We couldn’t compete and this season we’re going to try to maintain this rhythm as long as possible."
Guardiola then lavished praise on Ederson, despite the Brazil international making an error on the same day he committed his future to the club.
“Ederson was an incredible quarterback today, making incredible long balls for Omar [Marmoush] and Erling [Haaland], and especially after we had the patience to make a lot of passes to be calm," he continued.
“The important thing today because we’d already qualified, so to go through, you have to beat the best teams, you can face them before or after.
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“The most important thing is that we can do it again. I had the feeling the players felt, I don’t have to tell them, they felt we can compete in that way like we have in last decade.
“Last season, it couldn’t happen for one reason, because we had no players. Today we had two incredible central defenders and four on the bench, last year we had one at a time. The best player in the world, all season out.
“That’s why we struggled a lot, we couldn’t train, since day one with Pep (Lijnders) James (French), Kolo (Toure) we made a step up in training. The training session is unbelievable, how we go.
Pep Guardiola lavished praise on Ederson as Juventus were beaten by Man City at the Club World Cup
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“This is the only way to survive in the Premier League, Europe, in all the competitions."
City are next in action against Al Hilal on Tuesday (2am).
As for Juventus, they'll face Real Madrid in the round of 16 on the same night despite their defeat to Guardiola's men.
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