Pep Guardiola has backed young defender Abdukodir Khusanov to learn from his difficult debut for Manchester City. The 20-year-old endured a nightmare start to his City career, gifting Chelsea an early goal and receiving a yellow card in his first four minutes on the pitch.
Khusanov, who joined City from Lens for £33.6 million last week, was at fault for Chelsea’s third-minute opener in Saturday’s Premier League clash. He misjudged a header, allowing Nicolas Jackson to set up Noni Madueke for an easy goal.
Just moments later, Khusanov was booked for a foul on Cole Palmer, leaving Guardiola with a difficult decision. The City manager eventually opted to substitute Khusanov early in the second half, bringing on John Stones.
Despite Khusanov’s shaky start, City recovered to win the match 3-1 thanks to goals from Josko Gvardiol, Erling Haaland, and Phil Foden.
Guardiola expressed his sympathy for Khusanov, acknowledging the challenges of facing a strong Chelsea attack.
“Well, what I thought is not the best start, right?” Guardiola said. “He will take a lesson. He’s so young, he’s come for many years. It’s not the best start of course, but dealing with [Nicolas] Jackson, with Cole [Palmer], with all these incredible players is not easy. He will learn. He’s young, he will learn, I’m pretty sure. Take a lesson from that.”
Guardiola also revealed that there is a communication barrier between him and Khusanov, who does not speak English fluently.
“I have to learn Russian or Uzbek to communicate with him [Khusanov],” Guardiola joked. “He doesn’t speak fluently in English. In this kind of situation, there’s nothing much to say. He knows he made a mistake. What can I say? Don’t do a mistake? He doesn’t want to do it, so we know that.”
Khusanov’s early substitution was partly influenced by his yellow card and the need to have Stones available for City’s crucial Champions League clash with Club Brugge on Wednesday. Khusanov is ineligible to play in the Champions League, and City must win the match to have any chance of progressing from the group stage.
Despite the difficult debut, Guardiola remains confident that Khusanov will learn from his mistakes and become a valuable asset for City in the future.
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