Manchester City No.2 Pep Lijnders will be the leading man in the dugout for the Blues at West Ham on Saturday night
Pep Guardiola was not allowed to be in the Manchester City dugout for the Premier League game with West Ham. The Blues boss must serve a second suspension of the season after picking up his sixth yellow card last week.
City’s manager picked up yellow cards in Premier League games with Arsenal, Forest, and Brighton earlier in the campaign to mean he had to sit out the FA Cup game with Exeter. And he has since picked up three more to mean he must now miss two games.
The rules cover both the Premier League and FA Cup but not the Carabao Cup or Champions League, meaning Guardiola will be allowed on the touchline for games next week against Real Madrid and Arsenal. However, for the West Ham game and the Liverpool FA Cup match next month he will only be able to communicate with his staff from the stands, with Pep Lijnders taking charge.
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Guardiola was fortunate not to get a red card at Newcastle last week, only picking up a yellow despite remonstrating on a number of occasions about the officiating both during the game and after it.
Asked about the incidents afterwards, he said: “When Jeremy Doku dribbles past (Kieran) Trippier and goes alone to the box and is being pulled form behind, I’m not asking for a yellow card but please – it’s a foul.
“I will defend my team. We have all the records in this country -all of them. Despite everything, we have all of them. And we have the record of the manager with the most yellow cards. I have always wanted this record and now I have it. Two game banned now and I will go on holidays.”
As the following question began, Guardiola pressed on: “Oh my God. Oh. My. God. There are things that still after 10 years I cannot understand. Review the action, review the action. Of course I’m going to defend Doku, and all my teams. They continue to do it.”