Man City manager Josep Guardiola has criticized his team’s performance in their 2-0 loss to Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League, saying his players “didn’t try.”
Guardiola made 10 changes for the game but was unimpressed with his players who had their chances at the Etihad Stadium, criticizing them for playing to avoid making mistakes rather than making things happen.
Asked whether the defeat was a reminder of how difficult it is to aim for major trophies, Guardiola said: “We know the competition is tough.
“Of course I’m not talking about disappointing results, but I always talk about performances the most and of course results help us perform better. But I’m not too disappointed with the Newcastle game, and for the last game (Leverkusen) I’m not sorry for my decisions and the lack of effort we made. It’s simple.
Use Chrome Browser for a more accessible video player
Bernardo Silva questions Josep Guardiola’s 10 changes to Manchester City’s 2-0 Champions League defeat to Leverkusen
Guardiola said he was confident in the abilities of the new players, but said they were too cautious with the ball.
“They played to ‘make no mistakes,'” he said. “Don’t play with the intention of ‘doing something.’ That’s very difficult.
“In football, you have to make plays. On defense, you have to work. If you lose an action, you’ve done it.
“They play to be safe, and that’s why it’s so difficult because you don’t want to be like, ‘Oh, I’m making a mistake, I want to be noticed.’
Explaining the decision to rotate players, he said: “In soccer, when you play on the green, you have to try things that we haven’t tried.
“Maybe you have a theory to rotate. You can’t maintain that, so you have to rotate. But I had a lot of confidence in them. I still have a lot of them.”
Use Chrome Browser for a more accessible video player
Clinton Morrison discusses whether Manchester City manager Josep Guardiola’s team rotation revealed over-reliance on Haaland after Champions League defeat to Leverkusen
“I value their value as footballers very much. Maybe I think about them more than they think about themselves.
“That was a good lesson for me. So even though I’m pretty experienced as a manager, it was a good lesson for the future.”
Is Pep being too kind? He will now be relentlessly focused on winning against Leeds
Ben Ransom of Sky Sports News said:
“Manchester City’s players may have been down in midweek, but they are still on manager Josep Guardiola’s Christmas list.
“After the loss to Bayer Leverkusen, he said that maybe he was guilty of giving too much time to so many players from the start of the match and that he might have been too kind. And when I asked him if he would be less kind from now on, he smiled and said that he would continue to be the beautiful person his parents had raised him to be!”
“It was a rare moment of lightheartedness in a serious press conference. Pep is in the business of winning and understands how important it is for players to rediscover their habits before giving in too much in the title race.”
“With a reliable team back in the starting eleven, I think we can expect more changes from the team that lost in midweek.
“I think we can say with some certainty that they are focused on beating Leeds and getting back to business.”
Rodri absent again, Guardiola aiming to hit back against Leeds
In a series of short responses, Guardiola confirmed that Spain midfielder Rodri will be absent again this weekend against Man City as he continues to recover from a hamstring problem he suffered at Brentford in October.
He also refused to be drawn too much into talk of the Premier League title race, where leader Arsenal will play second-place Chelsea on Sunday. The Gunners hold a seven-point advantage over City after just 12 Premier League games, but Guardiola said his focus was on Leeds despite being aware Arsenal have already built a “distance” with the team.
“There’s always the experience of talking about the next game, about next week or the next game,” Guardiola said. “And what happens after that? We know the distance is already there.
“Arsenal are very strong. You can see it game after game in the Premier League and other leagues. You’re starting to see us getting better and better as a team and you can see that.”
