Pep Guardiola praise for Fernandinho and Ederson shows key Man City mentality advantage

There are a number of reasons why Manchester City are a superb football team. In Pep Guardiola they have one of the greatest coaches of all time masterminding their success, a tactician who has brought his unique brand of possession-based, positional, attacking football to English football and without whom City would not have achieved what they have in recent years.

City's players are among the best in the world, each scouted and signed not because they were the biggest names available but because they possessed the exact skillsets - and potential - to thrive in Guardiola's system. There are other factors such as the relentless work of Guardiola's coaching team, the role that rival teams and managers have played in forcing City to improve and innovate and, as Pep never tires of mentioning, financial resources.

However, there is something, often dismissed as a footballing cliché, that has allowed City to play at a consistently high level. Mentality. It's a word often associated with Jurgen Klopp's 'mentality monsters' down the M62 - 'this means more' etc. etc. - but it's undeniable that City's stars possess certain mental attributes that make them resilient, able to perform under intense pressure and, above all else, human.

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In his press conference ahead of Wednesday's Champions League quarter-final second leg against Atletico Madrid, Guardiola spoke about the mentality of two players in particular. After Guardiola had the news of Fernandinho's decision to leave the club at the end of the season sprung on him by MEN Sport's Simon Bajkowski - the City boss claimed he was not aware of his captain's decision -