Manchester City news: Pep Guardiola not looking for any excuses in FA Cup against Newport County

Pep Guardiola is used to his Manchester City team playing on pitches that resemble carpets or snooker tables. But he is not looking for excuses as he leads his team to Newport County in the FA Cup.

The surface at Newport’s Rodney Parade ground is best described as ‘old-school’. As the League Two side share the pitch with two rugby union teams and are at the mercy of the South Wales climate, it is more than understandable.

It was heavily criticised last Saturday by Mansfield manager David Flitcroft following his team’s league match on it and it will not favour City’s fluid passing game.

But Guardiola knows this is one of the vagaries of the FA Cup. Fellow Premier League title challengers Tottenham and Liverpool have their feet up this weekend but City have to negotiate their way past a team 15th in the bottom division – 82 places below them.

The City manager has even compared going to Rodney Parade to what his team encountered when they faced Spurs at Wembley in October, after the national stadium had hosted an American Football game just over 24 hours beforehand.

“We have to adapt,” says Guardiola. “It is what it is, so we accept the challenge.

“We played in the Premier League against Tottenham after two NFL games and the pitch was not good. If it can happen in the Premier League, it can happen with a team from a lower division, so we accept it.

“All of us know it will be so tough. If we just expect it to be easy because they are in a lower division, we will have a big mistake. We take this seriously and we know how tough it will be from the first minute until the end.

“All I can say is myself and all my players played in these kinds of conditions when they were young. At 15, 16, 17 they played on this type of pitch.

“They play at home and they can do whatever they want. I saw reviews and vintage games here in England from the sixties, seventies and eighties. The big difference in football from the past and now is the pitches.

“Before it was normal to play the way Newport play. It was not possible with pitches in that condition to play on the grass. You had to play long balls, and in the channels. That was normal.

“We will see what the pitch is like tomorrow when we arrive in the stadium and we will have to adapt. You don’t win anything by complaining. They are the owners and we have to adapt.”

Despite the enormous gap in quality between the two sides, Guardiola is understandably wary. At this stage of the FA Cup 12 months ago, with City also challenging in four competitions, they suffered a shock 1-0 loss away to then League One, Wigan Athletic.

While in the last two seasons, Rodney Parade has witnessed defeats for Leicester, Leeds and Middlesbrough as well as a draw with Tottenham.

So before thoughts can turn to a Champions League trip to Schalke on Wednesday and the Carabao Cup final with Chelsea a week on Sunday, Guardiola cannot look beyond Newport.

“We treat them with a lot of respect,” he adds. “They’ve done incredibly in this competition and what they do, they do it really well. We’ve watched as much as possible to understand what they do.

“We respect them a lot. What happened with Wigan, it’s one game and it’s away, so anything can happen. We will take it seriously, I’m quite sure about that.”