Paulo Fonseca knows how to deprive Manchester City players of their strengths..

Shakhtar head coach Paulo Fonseca told how he is going to play against Manchester City.

- The players of Manchester City superbly control the ball and they have plenty more qualities.. They have a great line of defense, including the goalkeeper, even if your team is very high pressure. They do an excellent job with pressure.. They can also exit the defense with long passes through Leroy Sanah and Raheem Stirling, which are very fast. Therefore, you need to find another way to protect.

- It is unusual for Shakhtar to defend, because in the Ukrainian championship there is no need to devote much time to defense?.

- Absolutely. This is another challenge for us.. In Ukraine, in most matches, we spend maybe 80 percent of the time at the opponents goal. We rarely defend. We are Manchester City, only in the championship of Ukraine. Therefore, we are forced to play differently in the match with the “citizens”.

However, this does not mean that you have to sit on the defensive, expecting an opponent to conduct a counterattack. My team will not play in this style.. I have never played this way, even when I coached small clubs.. My players are not used to it.. Therefore we will try to invent something else..

- What exactly?.

- The main philosophy is to be high, but at the same time play compactly. I want the distance from our last defender to our attacker to be short. The same applies to the distance between the two flanks. Our team must play high and narrow. If we play tight and compact, Manchester City will be harder to control the ball..

At the same time, we should not go into high pressure and lose ground on the field.. We should not allow them to sit down very deeply, because, as I said, the players of Manchester City possess many qualities, including speed.

Our plan will work if we remain compact, with no holes between the lines..

It requires a lot of concentration as well as discipline and a lot of energy.. First of all, my players need to understand what Manchester City players are going to do.. This is one of the most important things I’m trying to teach my players, ”Fonseca told ESPN in an interview..

Match Miner - Manchester City will be held on Wednesday, October 7th. The meeting starts at 22:00.

On football. ua will be available online text translation of the fight.