Pep Guardiola explains why he held Joao Cancelo back from his first Manchester City start

Pep Guardiola has explained why Joao Cancelo was held back from his starting XI for a long time. Signed in early August, the right-back still hasn’t made his first Premier League start in spite of his participation in the Champions League match against Dinamo Zagreb and in the Carabao Cup win over Preston last week. Many Cancelo fans wanted to see him in the game, but Guardiola trusted the right-back to Kyle Walker. The Blues boss said that after his move from Juventus, the Portugal international has needed time to adapt to City tactics: “Because he arrived late, not in pre-season, so most of the things that we worked on in the past…In pre-season, he was not there. What he did in the past with previous teams, was completely different, so that is why he needed a little bit more time. But I think he is getting better. With the ball we don’t have doubts, without the ball he starts to understand what we want and he did it quite well in the games he has played.”

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