Pep Guardiola has revealed what he said to Djed Spence after Manchester City’s 1-0 win at Tottenham.
The City boss was seen giving Spence a playful slap at full-time while engaging in deep discussion.
It’s not the first time the Spaniard has imparted his words of wisdom on opposition players and the in-form Spence was next on the list.
Spence, who was unlucky to be on the losing side on Wednesday night despite only coming on as a second-half substitute for Destiny Udogie, saw his display appreciated by Guardiola who made a beeline for him after the final whistle.
And in true Guardiola fashion, he showed his appreciation by slapping the 24-year-old in view of the cameras.
Asked what he said to Spence after his side’s win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Guardiola said: “ ‘Why do you run too much? You should be more calm’.
He continued: “[Destiny] Udogie is quite similar, the pace of this team is difficult to… Maybe Liverpool, but they are unbelievable, unbearable, and every time they have the ball and run, they’re unstoppable; Spence, Pedro Porro, Udogie, [Dejan] Kulusevski, [Heung-min] Son.
“It’s an incredibly physical team with a clear idea, they play really good. They played without [Cristian] Romeo and [Micky] van de Ven; two of the best central defenders in the league…”
Spurs gave a good account of themselves particularly in the second half as they pushed to cancel out Erling Haaland’s 12th-minute goal.
Guardiola’s side dominated the early exchanges which saw Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario called into action.
Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou’s half-time team talk appeared to make a difference to his side’s approach after the interval but were unable to breach a City defence that had kept just one clean sheet in their last ten outings.
Speaking after the match Postecoglou admits his side paid the price for their poor first-half showing.
“First half, I think there was some overeagerness there, especially with the ball,” he said. “I thought we were wasteful and we allowed City to get a bit of rhythm in there and when they do that, they pick you off and obviously scored, granted some good chances in there.
“We hung in there, which is the most important thing, stayed, it was only 1-0 at half-time, second half, we just calmed down a little bit with the ball and really relentless without it, I thought we dominated the whole second half, played in there half, created chances but obviously missing the goal and disappointed to lose.”
“Like I said, we’re missing that sort of final action a little bit but we were just a lot more calmer, a lot more clear-headed in our movements in what we needed to, I just thought in the first half, we were just too eager to try and go and hurt City and we kind of paid the price for that.”
Tottenham’s exit from the FA Cup means they are not back in action until next Thursday when they take on Dutch side AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League round of 16.
The competition now provides Postecoglou’s men with their only shot at silverware and with that, a potential spot in next season’s Champions League.