Friday 16 December 2016 06:15, UK
Manchester City are ready to compromise on Pep Guardiola's passing philosophy to stop leaking goals, according to Pablo Zabaleta.
Zabaleta scored in Wednesday night's 2-0 win over Watford and was part of a defence that kept City's first clean sheet in nine games and just their second in three months.
Guardiola's sides have traditionally passed out from the back, and the Catalan signalled his intent to implement the same style at City when he brought in ball-playing centre-half John Stones and goalkeeper Claudio Bravo in the summer.
But Stones was dropped to the bench against Watford after his poor backpass gifted Leicester's Jamie Vardy a goal at the weekend, and Zabaleta says City are prepared to take a direct route forward when needed.
"We played direct when it was needed and we played out from the back when there was a good chance to play from Claudio Bravo," he said.
"We need to respond to those situations where sometimes we need to play long balls and go for the second balls as well. In this league you need this, it is so physical. You need to be strong as a defender and you must be so solid.
"We have been talking the last few days that we needed to improve defensively. We kept a clean sheet, we were solid at the back and that is a big difference.
"I think the main problem was we were conceding too many counter-attacks and we needed to concentrate more on those balls. I thought we were very concentrated during the whole game against Watford, winning the long balls, being very aggressive at the back, winning all the duels.
"That is what you need as a defender, and as a team you need that determination and that desire to win the duels and the tackles. You must be prepared for this and we've got the players that have the aggression to cope with this."
