Manchester City must emulate Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus domination - Pep Guardiola

Published on: 23 September 2018

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CARDIFF, Wales -- Pep Guardiola wants Manchester City to become one of the biggest clubs in Europe by dominating the Premier League.

The Premier League champions moved up to second with the 5-0 victory over Cardiff City on Saturday, four days after their home defeat to Lyon in the Champions League.

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No team has defended their championship for 10 years but Guardiola, who won six titles in seven years at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, has targeted domestic superiority.

"The first priority is the Premier League, that is the nicest one," he told his postmatch news conference after the Cardiff game. "When I see for example three teams -- Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Juventus -- that have won seven leagues in ten years they show me they are the best teams.

"We want to be consistent and solid in that competition. After, we want to improve in knockout games on the ones we have made in the past. We're going to try."

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City also start their defence of the Carabao Cup with a trip to League One strugglers Oxford United on Tuesday.

Guardiola used domestic cup competitions as an opportunity to give reserve goalkeeper Claudio Bravo some game time last season, but the Chilean has been ruled out for six months with a ruptured Achilles tendon and the City boss has not decided whether to bring in new No. 2 Aro Muric.

The 19-year-old has not played for the first team yet but Guardiola has pledged to give younger players an opportunity with Oleksander Zinchenko and Brahim Diaz set to be recalled to the squad.

"Maybe I can play Aro but I didn't make the decision. I want to speak with [goalkeeping coach] Xabi [Mancisidor]," he said.

"I know quite clearly the guys in the first team that are going to play. Danilo is coming back, Oleks and Brahim, some players that played [on Saturday] are going to play because they need rhythm.

"Otamendi played but hasn't played too much in the last month. We are going to use a lot of players [this season]."

Source: espn.co.uk

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