​Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan has revealed a number of insights into Pep Guardiola's tactical philosophy this season, appearing on ​NBC Sports.





The German playmaker is out for the rest of the season having suffered a knee injury in December.





Gundogan had made a promising start under Guardiola, and has now offered, in detail, some of the intricacies of the Catalan coach's setup.





Asked about the use of full-backs in central areas, he said: " We always want to be in the position with three (defenders), two (players in central areas) and then the two attacking midfielders because that makes the game easier for us.

"We have short ways of passing between all these players and the most important thing is about creating space for these two guys (attacking midfielders Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva) so they can turn and pass to these guys (wingers Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling) and these guys - in an ideal situation - pass back to Sergio Aguero to score."





On the use of pressing, he added: " It depends on the situation and also on the opponent. If we are quite defensive (positionally) and we lose the ball, we just try to get back into our positions and try to defend. That's something you have to do from time to time.

"But if we are more in front and all our players are higher up the pitch, we push and try to win the ball back as soon as possible. It's much better to win the ball in these areas rather than in your own half because it makes it easier to score a goal and if we have the opportunity to win the ball back up here (high up) we try to use it."





Gundogan also commented on his own future role in the side. " I like both positions - holding midfield and attacking midfield. If we play with holding midfielders, normally I am one of those two.





"But quite often we play with just one holding midfielder and two attacking midfielders and when I was fit I played almost 90 per cent of all games as an attacking midfielder and I enjoyed it - creating chances and scoring."

<section><h2>If you could only see one of the four mouth-watering UCL quarter-final games what would you pick?</h2></section><section><h2>Atlético Madrid vs Leicester City</h2></section><section><h3>Bayern Munich vs Real Madrid</h3></section><section><h3>Dortmund vs Monaco</h3></section><section><h3>Juventus vs Barcelona</h3></section>

​​