The Group G trip to Germany comes in the midst of a demanding run that will see the Treble winners face six away games in seven matches.
City will step out at the Red Bull Arena in the unfamiliar position of having lost our last two games – last Wednesday’s 1-0 Carabao Cup loss at Newcastle being followed by Saturday’s 2-1 Premier League defeat at Wolves.
However, addressing the media at his pre-match press conference said he was happy with how the squad were performing with several summer additions having bedded in – and backed City to only get better as the recent additions get time to further their understanding.
“I don’t know what will happen this season. It’s too early to know exactly but I have more than admiration about these players and what they’ve done in the past and so far. It’s unbelievable,” the City boss declared.
“(At Wolves) We concede two shots on target, we concede one goal and after that, we have 23 shots, they have ten in the box and we lost. That part of football.
“Of course, we have to improve.
Last game v Wolves, the basis and fundamental players we had in the last two months of last season when we won were Rodrigo, John Stones, Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Jack Grealish and Bernardo, they were not there (at Molineux). Six players who played good and were important...
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“Sometimes you have to adjust something, it’s normal but Mateo (Kovacic) for example, and Julian (Alvarez) have both been amazing. I couldn’t expect Mateo to adapt so fast, Jeremy (Doku) too...
“There are moments and things where they know exactly what we have to do, for one simple reason - we have had eight years together. They know it. When I breathe, they know what to do but the others don’t yet. They are playing really well but they don’t know it.
“They have to play games and be in that position. It’s completely normal. Still, we’re in the process of getting better and getting results.
“The Newcastle game we lost it hurt yeah, Wolves yeah it hurt, the Premier League is so tough, but we have to move forward prepare the game like RB Leipzig then go away in London against Arsenal.
“We won’t win or lose the Premier League against Wolves we’ve been in the position to be behind the lead many times. Maybe the 100 points season we lead from the start but the others always we were behind – six, seven, eight points.
“And not in October, it was February or March. Come back our players, come back our principles try to do better, learn from the game. I’m more than pleased with what we have done so far but we have to move on.”
Play the video to watch Pep’s press conference in full…
