'F*cking hell!' - Pep Guardiola hilariously invites reporter to become his assistant after being stunned by question in Man City press conference

City switch focus from the Premier League to the FA Cup on Saturday and another tie with Salford City. The two teams met in the competition last season, with City running out 8-0 winners. Guardiola is expected to rotate his team against the League Two side as he bids to guide them to yet another final and admitted ahead of the game that his charges are tired, telling reporters: "My priority is to beat Salford and get to the next round. In the last years it has been magnificent what they have done, reaching finals and semi-finals. Unfortunately we could not win the last two finals but to be there is a success, always I think about that and hopefully we have a long week, which I think we need. We are so, so exhausted mentally and physically from this incredible amount of games. A few days off and we can have a little break after the game tomorrow.

"Of course they are in League Two and we play at home. I try to knuckle it in the minds of the players that nothing is taken for granted and everything is difficult. It may be easy afterwards but we have to do our job. In these competitions the FA Cup, Carabao Cup, always we have been there. Always we have been really good and tomorrow cannot be an exception."

Guardiola was then asked a detailed question about tactics in regards to how he has deployed his front three this season - with reference to something he said way back in 2006 - and seemed taken aback by the reporter's knowledge, responding: "Do you want to be my assistant coach?! F*cking hell, you are brilliant. You are top."

The response drew laughter from the press room, before Guardiola went on to say: "We have qualities with the players we have. We have just one proper, proper winger right now in Antoine [Semenyo] and we have to make a system comfortable for the players. No more than that. When I am 70, 80 years old I will look back and as a manager I would have changed many, many things. The ideas in terms of the build-up, high pressing. But if I don't have wingers, I don't play with wingers, I have to play another one in order for them to feel comfortable, no more than that."

Top scorer Erling Haaland is a doubt for the match after being taken off at half-time against Fulham in midweek. Guardiola did offer an update on the Norway international and hinted he could miss out, explaining: "Not 100 percent but we will see today how he feels. It is not a big issue, the doctor said to me but he had something disturbing [him] during the game and that is why in the second half he doesn't play. But we will see today. We will decide today."

Salford boss Karl Robinson has warned his team he does not want to see any of his players swapping shirts with Manchester City stars at half-time. He told talkSPORT: "They best not, mate. They better not try to get a shirt at half time - I'll go mental if they do. We've trained all week, and we've extended our pitch, so it is bigger than what we normally play on. We had an 11 versus 11 yesterday, and we actually made it a 14 vs 11 just to make them realise how difficult it is going to be. We know we are probably going to have to give up the ball for most of the game, and when you play at our level, we have a lot of the ball, so it's going to be a game of football where we don't touch it very often. It is difficult to swallow your ego and accept that, but you are going to have to because the quality of opposition is so good."

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