Guardiola: Malmouche can also serve as the 9th position, and he will be more effective together with Haaland

October 29th, at 3:45 a.m. tomorrow, Manchester City will face Swansea away from home in this round of the League Cup. Before the game, Manchester City coach Guardiola attended the press conference.

Q: Malmouche is Harland's substitute. Is it beneficial to the team that he can play multiple positions?

A: Malmouche was out for a long time due to injury, and now he has returned. He and Haaland can play together. If we need a winger, a true wide player, we have other options that are more suitable.

But when we need a player who can operate near Haaland, who can play in the gap between the defender and the central defender, in the second position, and who can provide a high-intensity game, Malmouche is the best choice. Malmouche is also one of our best options if we need a player near the penalty area.

However, if we need to control the ball in a small space, or need more players to cooperate in these positions, then there are other more suitable players. So it depends on what kind of players we need. For example, like last season, when the full-backs were stretched wide and the wingers moved in, Malmouche was the best choice.

Q: With Malmouche’s performance at the 9th position, have your teammates learned more about him?

A: He is indeed qualified for the No. 9 position. Haaland's statistics are very important and impressive and he accounts for a lot of our goals. But when we need to score, as is sometimes the case, Malmouche's presence becomes even more important. Look at the few minutes he came on as a substitute against Aston Villa and almost equalized for us, just a little too far offside. So he has such ability, but he is still young and there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Q: When facing Arsenal, the opponent usually adopts a specific strategy in situations such as set pieces, but do you want to stick to your principles?

A: Every coach will do what they think is right. Of course, I'm not worried, but I'm focused on that and I want the team to score from free kicks and corner kicks, and of course, I'm not naive about that. I hope we can do it. But I will spend time looking at how to make the team perform better, defend better, become stronger, attack better, create more chances, score goals one on one against the goalkeeper. Defensively, you need to be more aggressive in confrontations, those are the aspects I saw in the game.

Of course, I pay attention to those situations, but I know I'm the coach trying to do what I'm supposed to do. Now, when we don't perform well, like against Tottenham before, against Brentford under Thomas Frank and now Tottenham, they have scored three goals and two goals from set pieces, and the goal against Everton was also from a corner kick.

So there were three goals in total, one was disallowed, and two of them were scored through set pieces, which is true. I'm not naive when I say I don't pay attention to these, of course not. I don't want to concede goals and most goals come from set pieces like this and I know people spend a lot of time on that. The goal we conceded against Aston Villa came from a corner kick and the other chance came from a corner kick. Other chances came on a counter-attack because we didn't control our position well, as we did against Riyadh Crescent in the Club World Cup. But against Aston Villa, other than those circumstances, we performed very, very well.

So I understand that, and I know that this is a concerning situation. Maybe that didn't happen when I first came, like against Burnley or those teams. But now it has become a fact. Of course, you have to pay attention to this. But I still want to work hard and play; what should we do when the opponent has the ball, or what should we do when we have the ball.

Q: Which youth training players will participate in the game against Swansea?

A: Devine Mukasa will travel with the team.

Q: How did you choose the youth training players to participate in the game? Especially as the U21s had played Rotherham 24 hours earlier.

A: I remember players like Brahim Diaz, Palmer, Morgan Rogers, and many, many players - Tosin Adarabioyo - since I've been here, a lot of academy players have been given a lot of opportunities in this tournament, and it's a very valuable opportunity. I hope more academy players can help us against Swansea. Both brothers got some playing time against Huddersfield in the last game, so that's really good and it's a really good opportunity for the academy players.

Q: Let’s talk about Ryan McAdoo.

A: Yes, he is already on our radar. We spoke to Kolo Toure and our condolences go out to his family as his father passed away last week. Kolo is now dealing with funeral arrangements in his country, but he has remained in touch with the academy, not just the second tier but other ranks as well.

Q: Is it a lineup arrangement for the team to play Harland and Malmouche at the same time? Maybe it will be better if they play together?

A: From a scoring perspective? Yes, absolutely. You look at the chances we created against Everton. We had seven one-on-one opportunities with Pickford, seven times. Against Villarreal we also created two chances in the opening minutes, among many others. Of course, every player has his own talent. In terms of dribbling, no one can match Doku, but in terms of scoring goals, Malmouche is better than Doku, and Doku is better than Malmouche in one aspect. It's not that one is better than the other, it's that their skills are different.

To score goals, we need Doku, but also Malmouche, but all of them have to defend, and in the midfield position, you have to play against Onana and Kamara and find players who can create chances and score goals, but also win duels in the midfield. When you ask players to win duels and become more aggressive in midfield, you lose creativity up front. That's the balance we're trying to find and we're constantly trying and adjusting to find what the team really needs.