2023-06-14 17:07:11
Manuel Akanji: ‘I have to thank Pep Guardiola’
The Swiss defender of Manchester City returned to the historic hat-trick achieved this season. And he must highlight his trainer.
Manuel Akanji poses with the special jersey offered by the ASF to honor the hat-trick of its international defender.
KEYSTONE
The man has regained part of his voice. “The fault of the air conditioning,” he pretends. Manuel Akanji is not fooling anyone. He reassures: “It’s already better than yesterday.” Since Saturday, the Zurich man has probably slept less than he partied. The least of it. Akanji may not have the same stamina as his teammate Jack Grealish, who is not yet known if he has come back down since the crowning of Istanbul, but he celebrated the historic treble no less than another what Manchester City has achieved this season: Premier League, FA Cup and therefore the Champions League.
“The kind of things you dream of as a child,” realizes the 27-year-old defender. He found the Swiss team (which plays Friday in Andorra) late Tuesday evening, in Locarno. On Wednesday morning, he briefly trained with the group, before staying on the side. “It’s not easy to come to the selection following having lived such weeks, but I am delighted all the same, he admits. We have to qualify for Euro 2024.” Because, as long as you do, following having won almost everything at club level this season, why not climb to the top of Europe one day with your team? When you have just lived through such a year, hope seems immortal.
“He is the best coach I have had”
It should be noted: since Saturday, Manuel Akanji has entered another dimension. He has changed his destiny, and it is almost only due to the whims of one man: Pep Guardiola. “How much has it changed my life? Hard to say. But for sure he is the best coach I have had, thunders the former junior from Winterthur. Even when we play a good match, he always finds something to help us improve individually or collectively. That is impressive.”
“Pep is very demanding”
Wednesday, it is an ode to his coach that the international with 49 selections unrolled. Because that’s how it should be when you cross paths with the Catalan coach. He is the one who makes you see football differently. The one the player is forced to believe, even when he doesn’t want to. Manuel Akanji does not differ from another, except that he was lucky enough to be quickly praised by Guardiola. While he had signed at the very end of the transfer window from Borussia Dortmund, he immediately played: “I had only done two training sessions, so I mightn’t leave a great impression and he gave me my luck, he recalls. I have to thank him for that.” And for everything else.
Because in this spring of 2023, it may be the best version of Manuel Akanji that we have seen. He smiled: “I hope there will be an even better one, because that’s why I go to training every day. But yes, I think that in a year, I became a better player. This express adaptation, the central back also owes it to himself: “I am not surprised that everything went so well. I knew I should work hard and give my best every day. At this level, we are challenged daily. But I always knew that I had the quality to play in this team. All of this I deserved.”
Manuel Akanji believes he has become a better player since playing under Pep Guardiola.
AFP
To his credit, Akanji basically has one thing: that of stepping into the mould, understanding how Pep Guardiola works and complying with it. To the right, to the left, in the axis. With various functions with the ball or behaviors that had to be adapted according to the defensive approach chosen. “I have no idea how many positions or roles I’ve had this season,” he laughs. I played everywhere in defense. Pep is very demanding. Almost every game, we play with another tactic or with another game idea. It’s not always easy to feel what he really wants, he has so many things in mind. But he always makes sure to put us in the best possible conditions.
Cramps, for the first time
Except that sometimes, it is not enough to plan everything. This final once morest Inter on Saturday was more complicated than any other. “Honestly, we didn’t have a good match,” admits Akanji. His explanation? “There was some tension among the players.” Including him, who almost left during the match: “I think it was the first time in my life that I felt cramps”, laughs the Zurich man.
This will probably not be the first of the memories that will come back to him in a few years. Unlike this only goal of the match, on which he was decisive by finding the penultimate pass before the victorious strike from Rodri.
He redid the scene, for the umpteenth time no doubt: “I had space in front of me to attack the ball and find Bernardo Silva in the area. Guardiola expects the defenders that we bring something to the construction. I try to do that.” There was probably no better time to demonstrate it.
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