Rayan Cherki can be a Pep Guardiola player after all: ‘Free soul’ is overcoming individualistic reputation to earn Man City manager’s trust
Guardiola praised Cherki’s “courage to play” after the game, while also highlighting “this special talent, the connection with the people up front, that is unique”. But the coach’s pre-match interview with Sky Sports provided more insight into why he likes Cherki and, crucially, why he is prepared to put up with his individualistic streak.
“All the managers make a chess game, [saying to players] ‘You have to do this, you have to do that’ and he’s a little bit of a free soul,” Guardiola explained. “He’s a special player and he’s so young and hopefully he can be open and conscious to learn what the team needs from him with or without the ball and all the actions we need. But of course he brings something up front that is unique.”
Guardiola is perhaps more than any other coach known for treating his players like chess pieces, and he famously squeezed all the unpredictability and stardust out of Jack Grealish in order to make him more valuable to his City team. But while he will not exactly leave Cherki to his own devices all the time, he already sees him as within a category of players whom he trusts to do just what feels right in attack.
“In the big clubs you need talent, you need discipline,” he added. “The discipline is just to be all together and decide what we have to do. We have to do this otherwise playing modern football is impossible. After that in the final third I never said to Raheem Sterling or Savinho or Leroy Sane or Riyad Mahrez ‘Now you have to go left or right’. Just flow with your talent, invent something in the final third.”
Cherki has always been able to deliver in the final third, but now he has the added benefit of working with the world’s most deadly striker. And if he can keep up his understanding with Haaland and understand what Guardiola wants him to do when he is not attacking, he will prove to be an absolute steal.
