MANCHESTER CITY manager Pep Guardiola has revealed that he will ask his players to name their captain in the absence of Vincent Kompany.
The Citizens are set to face Borussia Dortmund in Shenzhen and the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss said his players are in a better position to select who wears the armband than he is.
Skipper Kompany is likely to miss the beginning of the campaign due to a thigh injury that also ruled him out of Euro 2016 with Belgium.
"Vincent is the captain, and when he's not playing, the players have to choose," said Guardiola.
"I don't think it's a big problem, we have people like Vincent, Joe [Hart], Yaya, Pablo [Zabaleta] as well.
"They have to decide who the real captain is for them. I have never believed I should pick the captain, because I am not in the locker room, not in the dressing room, I'm not in the meetings when they believe they have to change something.
"They have to choose for themselves the best guy to represent their opinions. I don't like to do it, because I have only been here a month, so they must decide. It's their responsibility.
"We've only been together a few weeks or a month and they know each other better than me. It's their responsibility."
Guardiola underlined that he wants his players to be at top physical condition after Gael Clichy had said that the Spaniard banned overweight players from first-team training.
"Normally I'm not a guy to say 'you can't eat that', I don't know what they eat normally. They eat what the nutritionist decides," he said.
"They were not overweight (at the start of pre-season), but I want my players fit. For me, weight is so, so important.
"We need to run, we need to fight...after three days (do it) again, after three days again, three days again.
"When you are not fit and your weight is not proper, danger is coming. That's why I want my players absolutely fit."
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