Riyad Mahrez has revealed how he struggled to meet the demands expected of him when he joined Manchester City.
The Algerian, who joined The Citizens from Leicester for £60million in the summer of 2018, admitted he had been forced to improve his work-rate to satisfy boss Pep Guardiola.
Mahrez is performing amazingly in his second season with City, but agreed that it took him time to understand how he was expected to play under Guardiola.
“His concern was about my work-rate first, because at Leicester it was more of a team rate where we were trying to counter,” said Mahrez. “Whereas at City it’s more about pressing and a very high effort and intensity.
“It’s taken me some time to have it myself and to put it in my head and game, but I think now it’s good. It’s more about the adaptation of the game and of the partnership with the players and again it took me some time as well.
“I arrived at a team that was champions, so it was a bit different for me. But I’ve changed as a player I know and improved. My work-rate [has improved]. How I analyse the game, such as where is the space, when to try to dribble and to not. This type of thing.”
The Algerian Winger, who is set to start City’s Carabao Cup tie against Southampton at home praised Guardiola for helping improve him as a player.
“The manager is a top manager so every day you are improving yourself by training and trying to understand what the manager wants,” said Mahrez. “How we play makes you improve yourself as well, because it’s a different style of play to when I was at Leicester. I think that’s the main thing.”
