Ex-Man Utd starlet plotting Man City FA Cup upset by using Pep Guardiola tactic

Ethan Galbraith started the week unsure if he would be making a deadline day move. He will end it looking to land one of the greatest ever Cup upsets. Leyton Orient rejected a bid of about £1m from Swansea for Galbraith on Monday. And while the laidback Northern Ireland star insists the noise around his future “was quite easy to ignore”, the prospect of hosting Manchester City in the fourth round is “massive.”.

Galbraith, 23, is familiar with several of Pep Guardiola ’s squad having faced them while he was coming through at Manchester United. “All top players,” he says. “But I know a bit about their quality.”. He names Oscar Bobb as the most talented of Guardiola’s current squad that he has taken on - “coming up against him was tough” - and he was also in the same age group as Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers.

But play-off chasing Orient, defeated for the first time since November in the league last weekend, are positive that they can make things difficult. “We’re confident,” Galbraith says. “But if you’re on a good run and look too far ahead of yourself, you can shoot yourself in the foot. “We’re going to have to be good defensively, we’ll have a lot of time without the ball but when we do get the chance we need to be clinical. We’ll put them under pressure whenever we can.”.

Galbraith is thriving as an inverted full back under O’s boss Richie Wellens - a tactic that Guardiola reintroduced during his time at Bayern Munich. Having arrived as a midfielder, he has been comfortable adapting and a big engine means he feels well-equipped to handle such a physically demanding role. “I’ve always been quite fit, the running stats and that have always been at the top end,” he says. “I’ve not had to change much but it’s demanding to get inside when on the ball, sometimes overlap and get up and down. I’ve had a laugh with wingers at times when bombing on.”.

He looks back on his time at Old Trafford and a single first-team appearance under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with immense pride. “I count myself lucky to have played with some of the players I have, some of the quality was unbelievable. I learnt a lot.”. Yet having grown up in north Belfast, he feels most comfortable among the East End grit of Orient. “It’s the family feel,” he highlights as the club’s biggest asset. “There’s no one better than anyone else. It’s an easy group to commit to. Where I’ve come from it’s not flash. I’m more used to this environment. It’s a great place to come to work.”.

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