Pep Guardiola backtracks after labelling midfielder Matheus Nunes ‘one of the best players in the world’

Pep Guardiola admits he may have over-exaggerated after describing Manchester City midfielder Matheus Nunes as one of the best players in the world.

City signed Nunes in a £53 million deal from Wolves in the summer and the Portugal international was handed his first Premier League start for the champions in the 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

Right after Manchester City’s thumping 5-0 win over Sporting CP in the first leg of their round of 16 clash in the 2021/22 Champions League season, Guardiola hailed Nunes as ‘one of the best players in the world’. Nunes used to play for the Portuguese club at that time.

But the Cityzens’ boss has now retracted his statement as he claimed Nunes is not yet among the best in the world but admitted that he is an ‘exceptional player’.

Speaking to reporters, Guardiola took back his previous statement as he said, “Maybe I overexaggerated a little bit. He’s not. He is a really good player but sometimes, maybe I said this comment after 1-5, it was 5-0? But he’s an exceptional player.”

But despite backtracking over his previous comments, Guardiola says he has been impressed with Nunes’ start to life at City.

‘Really good,’ Guardiola said.

‘Sometimes I say stay more calm in the position [but he is] dynamic. In the game today he’d get the ball, dribble and drop the opponents down.

‘He looks like he is never tired because his actions are 15, 20 metres, but we knew it at Sporting Lisbon, has done it as well at Wolves. We asked [Julen] Lopetegui, who is a friend of ours, how is he and all the opinions were really, really good and he’s special as a runner, has good finishing, defensively, can play in two or three positions.

‘So yeah, the last two games played against Red Bull and today was a key point, was really, really important.’