Pep Guardiola hints at defensive change to Man City team for Bayern Munich clash

Pep Guardiola has hinted he might bring Kyle Walker into his starting line-up to face Bayern Munich on Tuesday night.

The Manchester City manager admitted last week that Walker doesn’t fit into his preferred tactical formation at present, which sees full-backs pushing inside. But given the plethora of raw, attacking talent in the Bayern ranks, Guardiola said he may consider recalling the former Tottenham Hotspur man to the team for the Champions League quarter-final first leg.

City have been caught out before this season by rapid, breakaway goals, and with the likes of Sadio Mane, Leroy Sane, Serge Gnabry and Kingsley Coman in the Bayern squad, Guardiola was asked about how he plans to stop the opposition forwards.

“Defend what you have to defend. The fact that we conceded the goals [before in the Champions League] doesn’t mean it will happen tomorrow. The goals I think was not a big, big problem - we score goals but of course we have to defend well, here and in Germany.

“They have a lot of weapons and threats: the speed and quality they have, the mentality. It is a good test for us. Always when I talk about Bayern, it is how we behave. In these games we compete against ourselves.

“The moment we start a game we have to perform our best. Of course the opponent is there but we have every one, in every department, be focused on what we are doing and what we have to do.”

The City boss was then asked if he would consider starting Walker given the pace of Bayern’s attackers, he replied: “Yeah maybe. We will see.”

Meanwhile, Tuesday will see Guardiola come up against Thomas Tuchel, the only man to beat him in a Champions League final, when Chelsea won in the 2021 edition against City.

“I was sad but I congratulated him and Chelsea for the victory,” Guardiola said, when reflecting on that night in Porto. “It happened. I reviewed the game a month later. It was not as bad as I thought but at the same time it was not at all a good enough performance to win it.

“It was a tight, tight game like they always have been against Chelsea in that period. Forget it and try again.”

Quizzed on how facing Tuchel will differ from coming up against a Julian Nagelsmann side, Guardiola responded: “Both are so creative managers, shape the formation and the shape they play. We saw three or four games that Thomas Tuchel’s Bayern played and maybe tomorrow they will do something new.

“They are so creative. Always we try to figure out and the quality they have in all departments. It would have been difficult with Nagelsmann and will be difficult with Tuchel. I don’t pay too much attention to that, more focus on what we have to improve as a team to do well.”