‘Incredible mentality’: Pep Guardiola admits he has ‘huge respect’ for Arsenal defender David Luiz

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Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, has laughed off claims about David Luiz’s performances and admitted that he has ‘a lot of respect’ for the Brazilian defender.

Luiz has been under the microscope in recent weeks with a number of mistakes catching the eye. Indeed, a number of pundits and former players have questioned Mikel Arteta’s insistence on playing the 33-year-old.

However, ahead of their clash with the Gunners in the FA Cup today, City boss Guardiola is under illusions about the talent Luiz possesses as he laughed off those comments from pundits. (quotes via Goal)

“I have incredible respect for his career. He’s an exceptional player with an incredible mentality and especially personality.

“I laugh a lot about all the pundits, they were defenders and believe they didn’t make one mistake in their careers when they played for 20, 10 or 15 years. I have a lot of respect for this player. A lot.”

Luiz has endured a torrid time against City in the past and will be looking to rectify that today.

He put in a much-improved performance against Liverpool in midweek following a mistake against Spurs and Mikel Arteta clearly has the faith and respect in Luiz as his former mentor.

You can’t really question Guardiola, can you? – TBR View

Well, on the surface of it, no you can’t. But that doesn’t mean that David Luiz has been a bit of a ticking time bomb in certain fixtures this season.

Clearly, Guardiola is going to respect a fellow player and he’s right that Luiz has the quality and that some pundits can make out like they didn’t make any errors.

However, there’s no way that Guardiola won’t be telling his team to put the pressure on Luiz. Mistakes do creep into his game, the evidence is there.

So while Guardiola respects the Gunners star, don’t be against the Spaniard targeting him this evening either.