Now that both Guardiola and Yaya have let bygones be bygones, the Ivorian midfielder can focus on being that important player for the squad. Before Guardiola arrived, it had been established that Toure was the top midfielder in the squad without question. But the problems Pep had with Toure's agent Dmitri Seluk were detrimental for his role in the squad. Fortunately for everyone, the midfielder sat down with Guardiola and talked things over. But the manager doesn't expect him to become the team's unlikely hero.
Guardiola told the press that: "Yaya was so important at Crystal Palace with two goals, how he played. But as a team our performance must be better. I am concerned with that, to play better as a team and of course Yaya can be important with us like all the other players. I don't want to put on Yaya all the responsibility to win the games, I never do that. Even when I was training the best player in the world [Messi] I tried to involve all the processes of the game so all the responsibility was not on the shoulders of one player to win the game.
"It would not be good for Yaya and the team. Yaya is going to play games and in some of them he is not going to play like the other players. At Crystal Palace, for example [John] Stones, [Ilkay] Gundogan and David Silva didn't play. When you play in that rhythm and that level for 11 months, every three days and with the national teams and so on, all the players are important in that."
Photo credit: Manchester City FC