- Pep Guardiola revealed that City have been training on longer grass this week
- He warned of Fulham’s ‘high and dry’ turf, which he compared to Roland Garros
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Manchester City have grown the grass at their training ground in anticipation of a ‘high and dry’ surface at Fulham this lunchtime.
Pep Guardiola revealed that his stars practised on the specially prepared pitch on Thursday.
The City manager moaned last season that the Craven Cottage surface was ‘so long and so dry’ despite winning there and is not taking any chances as his side continue their quest for a fourth consecutive Premier League title.
‘Yesterday we trained part of the session with dry, high (grass) to adapt, to feel it,’ Guardiola said.
‘After we went to normal grass and it’s a massive difference. Massive. It’s completely different.
Pep Guardiola revealed that Manchester City have been training on a specially designed pitch to prepare for Fulham’s ‘high and dry’ Craven Cottage turf
City scraped a 2-1 win at Fulham last season in the title run-in and Guardiola moaned of the ‘long and dry’ surface
‘It’s like you play at Wimbledon and then Roland Garros. We have to adapt. The passes have to be stronger.’
Premier League rules state grass for matches cannot be longer than 30mm. Guardiola prefers the Etihad to be 20mm.