Guardiola is known for playing patient, possession-based football (Pictures: Getty)

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola aimed a cheeky dig at rivals United as he described his counterparts as being more likely to play long balls than other top club.

The Catalan coach is famous for his possession football, while Jose Mourinho has a rather more negative reputation, and Guardiola could not resist making a note of United’s rather less attractive style of play.

Asked about whether the end-to-end nature of English football, and the emphasis put on winning second balls, held back the national team, Guardiola responded by citing teams who ‘like to play’ – though United weren’t one of them.

Guardiola and Mourinho have markedly different philosophies on how to play football (Picture: Getty)

Speaking with Gary Lineker on The Premier League Show about whether the style of English football has stopped the Three Lions from competing, he replied: ‘I don’t think so.

‘You see for example the national team, and you see Eric Dier, Dele Alli, [Marcus] Rashford, Raz [Sterling], John Stones, Kyle Walker, they are players who have the ability to play, they want to play. [Jordan] Henderson, [Adam] Lallana too.

Guardiola did cite Rashford as a player ‘with the quality to play’ in the right way (Picture: Getty)

‘So they are players with the quality to play, I think they want to play. I don’t see all the time long balls. I see for example Chelsea, Tottenham, they want to play. They like to play, to build up.

‘When [Manchester] United play long balls up to [Marouane] Fellaini and [Paul] Pogba, after they have the quality to play.’

Guardiola laughed when Lineker suggested he’d win over City fans with his remark (Picture: Getty)

Congratulated on taking a subtle dig at United, Guardiola replied laughing: ‘I have a lot of respect for my neighbours.’

Guardiola also explained how English football differs from that of Germany and Spain, where he managed Bayern Munich and Barcelona, and admits even his best players cannot avoid getting sucked into the high-octane action.

He continued: ‘In Spain the value of the ball is so important in thinking about attacking. In Germany there’s strong physicality, and the counter attack there is a strong weapon.

Guardiola’s side are currently top of the Premier League table on goal difference (Picture: Getty)

‘Here [in England], the defender is here and the striker is here so the ball does not travel with the team. This kind of ball [long ball], if you win, is good. But if you lose is a counter attack. And that’s why the football in England is nice, because it is box to box, it’s attractive for the people.

‘Here I would like to be more patient with the ball in the right moment, but sometimes you cannot control it, even with my own team, even with my players: Gundogan, Silva, De Bruyne. They have the quality to be more patient, more calm, but no. So it’s ‘whoosh’, energy, up and down.’

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