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Peter Schmeichel believes Man City boss Pep Guardiola is overrated

Pep Guardiola

Former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel believes Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola will be found wanting in the English Premier League.

Guardiola will get his first taste of a Manchester derby when his City side take on United at Old Trafford on Saturday, live on Sky Sports 1.

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The 45-year-old won the Champions League twice with Barcelona along with three league titles and he replicated the domestic success Bayern Munich before taking up his post in Manchester.

Peter Schmeichel ended his career with Manchester City in 2003
Image: Peter Schmeichel ended his career with Manchester City in 2003

Despite Guardiola being one of the most regarded coaches in football, Schmeichel has doubts about the Catalan's ability as he prepares for his first Manchester derby clash on Saturday.

"What he did with Barcelona was fantastic," Schmeichel, who completed his career with one season at City, told Omnisport.

"He was very lucky he had the players at Barcelona but he was clever in what he did.

"The Premier League is a completely different animal to any other in the world. It just goes on and on and on, you feel it never stops, even in March you have 12 games to go, you think will this ever stop?

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Former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson and City coach Pep Guardiola
Image: Former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson and City coach Guardiola

"He was okay at Bayern Munich. I have to say he was okay. For me, personally, he changed a really good, entertaining team to be become more boring to watch."

Schmeichel also reckons former United manager Sir Alex Ferguson had a superior philosophy to Guardiola.

"Whereas Alex Ferguson's first priority was 'we have to be able to score goals' - for most coaches that's the priority - with Pep it's possession, I want to have as much possession as possible," Schmeichel said.

"So the philosophy goes to 'I want to have so much possession that at some point we'll score a goal from that, the goals will come from possession' and that's his philosophy."

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