Guardiola: My plan for Lahm

With Arturo Vidal now at the club, Philipp Lahm is likely to play at right-back more often than in the recent past, Pep Guardiola said on Friday. “I only have one right-back, Rafinha. So Philipp will sometimes play in the middle and sometimes at right-back,” explained the head coach, praising the club captain’s footballing intelligence: “Philipp filled three different positions in China – and always did well.”

Costa and Vidal start language classes

“Hallo...Wie geht es dir?” (“Hello – how are you?”) are the words on a sheet of paper proudly held up to the camera by Douglas Costa on his Twitter and Instagram accounts. On Thursday, the Brazilian took his first German class, with Arturo Vidal also beginning a course of tuition on Friday. “We have a fantastic German teacher here,” commented Pep Guardiola, who is impressed by his players’ efforts in the classroom: “Xabi Alonso is here at 9 am every day to learn German, Thiago too.”