Manchester City assistant manager Juanma Lillo says Pep Guardiola remains in full control.

Guardiola again missed yesterday's 5-1 win against Fulham as he recovers from back surgery.

Lillo said: "We weren't as fluid or incisive with the ball as we normally are. Fulham were set up very well and they chose their moments to play and attack us and press high to try and take the ball. They managed to take the ball from us more than some other opponents.

"But sometimes you just have to accept those moments within games. In the moments where we weren't doing well we always maintained our focus on what we wanted to do. In the second half it was much better and we had more tempo and fluidity, it was perfect.

On the half time message from Guardiola, he said: "Pep is always talking with us. We had a FaceTime just before the game, and he was contacting us on the bench and in the dressing room at half time.

"As I don't really speak English I will not deliver long passages, more just communicating with the players the little things here and there.

"Before the match we wanted to chat to get an agreement of what we wanted the players to do, then at half time he wanted us to make a few changes to the structure so we could find a way of playing that looked more like our normal selves.