Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola greeted the impact of the new signing sessions that came directly to the team for the 2-0 win over Wydad Casablanca in their opening match at the Club World Cup on Wednesday.
The Dutch midfielder Tijjani Reijnders and France both attacked midfielder Rayan Cherki on a hot afternoon in Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia after participating in the run -up to the tournament of AC Milan and Lyon, respectively.
“He is a real, really good player. You feel it, you smell it. The pace, in the last third part, with the ball, when he gets a little more rhythm, he will be great,” Guardiola said about Reijnders, 26, who played the entire game in steps in the circumstances.
Brought in to help fill the enormous void that was left behind by the departure of Kevin De Bruyne, the 21-year-old Cherki lasted an hour before he was replaced as a city to victory in the G-match group thanks to the first half of the POL FODEN and Jeremy Doku.
“Of course Kevin is difficult to replace, we know that, for the quality he has,” said Guardiola.
“There is no doubt about that, but at the same time the club decided to have Rayan because he has incredible skills near the box, incredible vision, many things.
“This was just the first game, in really tough circumstances, and I am really happy that he is here.”
There was an experimental image to the city's line-up against the Moroccan side, with the young Brazilian defender-vitor journey began for the third time since the signing in January, while Nathan Ake has made a first performance for his club since the end of February.
Foden ready to 'go again'
The five most used outfield players for City in the course of the last campaign – Josko Gvardiol, Bernardo Silva, Erling Haaland, Ruben Dias and Ilkay Gundogan – were all on the couch at the kick -off.
New signing Rayan Ait-Nouri was an unused replacement, but Guardiola suggested that he would change almost his entire team for the next game, against Al Ain in Atlanta on Sunday.
“We had new players, players who played in different positions. Vital travel played a really good game, Nathan Ake was three, four or five months without playing, so many players we needed to give them minutes,” said Guardiola.
“The next game, 10 new players will be there and we will try to win the next one.”
City will be without Rico Lewis because of the suspension for the collision with Al Ain after he was sent late against Wydad.
If that was a source of frustration for the coach, the performance of Foden was encouraging when the English star scored the first goal and made the second.
“It is clear that last season was not the best for me, so I put it in my head to start the season street, G and I am happy today that I managed to score and get an assist and help the team win,” said Foden.
“Last season was a bit rough for all of us, but it is about trying again this season, with the new signing sessions to help us and try to win trophies again.”