Manchester City defender Aymeric Laporte has opened up on how Pep Guardiola’s UEFA Champions League touchline ban will affect them saying that they will get instructions from Mikel Arteta and will not get any sort of communication from the manager.
Guardiola will be serving his final touchline ban when Manchester City take on Olympic Lyon on Wednesday 19th September after he was served up with a two-game ban in the quarterfinals last season against Liverpool. According to UEFA rules, a coach is not allowed to have communication with any member of the team.
“A team manager/coach who is sent off or suspended from carrying out his function may not be in the technical area or communicate directly or indirectly with the team’s players and/or technical staff during the match. In addition, a team manager/coach who is suspended from carrying out his function may not enter the dressing room or tunnel before or during the match.”
Laporte noted that nothing much will change only that they will instructions from Arteta, “Up to now the preparation has been completely normal. The difference tomorrow is we will have some rules, you must respect. We can have no communication. We are going to get plenty of advice from Mikel who works a lot with us on a daily basis. We are a competitive team, a good team and plenty of other people will help us. Normally the coach is on the bench. He won’t be but we know what we need to do.”
