Pep Guardiola Praises Gabriel Jesus

 

Pep Guardiola praised the contribution of Gabriel Jesus in Manchester City's 3-0 FA Cup fourth-round win at Crystal Palace on Saturday. The 19years old, making his first start for the club, assisted Raheem Sterling's opener with a fine through ball in the first half before winning the free-kick from which Yaya Toure curled in City's third in second-half stoppage-time.

Only an untimely slip prevented the £27m signing from scoring his first goal in England after he'd gone around Palace keeper Wayne Hennessey late on.

He said “He helped a lot, it's the first game and it's not easy for him to communicate as he doesn't speak English, so he'll need time. But he makes a lot of movement and his assist was outstanding. Sooner or later the new player has to start to play. Of course they have to deserve to play and show me on the pitch and on the training session but he made a good five or 10 minutes against Tottenham, when he came in and created two or three chances. Today he made a good assist and it was his last action, the fight and run with the central defender, and he won the duel. He played very good. He's very young, though - we cannot forget he's 19 years old and he has a lot of room to improve. But we're here to help him and improve his natural condition he has.”