According to the Mirror, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has launched a stunning defence of Arsenal defender David Luiz ahead of his side’s FA Cup Semi-Final vs the Gunners on Saturday night.
Guardiola has hailed centre-back Luiz’s ‘exceptional’ ability and also ‘incredible mentality’ in a stunning defence of the Brazilian defender in his pre-match press conference.
Luiz was dismal in Arsenal’s 3-0 defeat to the Citizens in their first game back after the Premier League’s return, the ace has looked fairly solid in the Gunners’ games since then though.
Arsenal announced last month that the ball-playing defender has signed a new one-year contract after a mixed debut season after joining from London rivals Chelsea.
Here’s what Guardiola had to say on the defender:
“I have an incredible respect for him and for what he has done in his career, he is an exceptional player and has an incredible mentality and especially personality.”
“I laugh out loud when I hear the pundits. A lot of them were defenders and they believe they didn’t make one mistake in their career even though they played for 15 or 20 years.”
“I like that Luiz still plays football and I’m pretty sure he’s going to make a lot of good actions, some more mistakes as that’s part of the game.”
“But he does it with dignity. I’ve a lot of respect for him.”
Pep showed his class by particularly mentioning the sometimes unfair criticism that Luiz receives from pundits, whilst he does make costly errors – is the treatment towards him perhaps taken too far?
Mikael Silvestre and Dejan Lovren both hit back at Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher after the former Liverpool man’s pretty harsh assessment of the ace after the City defeat last month.
Reds boss Jurgen Klopp also paid no attention to some below-the-belt digs towards the ace from a reporter after the Gunners shocked the champions.