Saturday 14 January 2017 14:20, UK
Everton manager Ronald Koeman feels his old friend Pep Guardiola may have underestimated the physical intensity of the Premier League.
Guardiola arrived at Manchester City as manager last summer having won La Liga three seasons out of four, when in charge at Barcelona, before enjoying a hat-trick of successes in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich.
City made a superb start under the Spaniard, as they swept to the top of the Premier League table with maximum points from six games.
However, since then, it has been seven wins from 14, with City travelling to Everton on Sunday for a game being shown on Sky Sports.
Asked if he thought his former Barcelona team-mate Guardiola had found English football tougher than anticipated, Koeman answered: "Maybe, yes.
"But I think to see what happens in the Premier League, you need to be part of that. Then you realise how difficult it is.
"Maybe the way he likes to play, against the physical intensity of the Premier League, is more difficult."
Everton go into Sunday's game at Goodison Park on the back of an FA Cup defeat at the hands of Leicester at the same venue.
Koeman added: "We know we had a really big disappointment last week. Now we have an opportunity after that defeat.
"We know we need to be very good. They had a great performance last week against West Ham.
"But if we go face-to-face on Sunday, and we play with that aggression and pressing, then we can make it very difficult.
"We have lost one game in the derby after something like 95 minutes – so everybody knows it is difficult to beat Everton at home.”
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