Man City boss Pep Guardiola gave a scathing assessment of his team’s performance in the 2-0 Champions League defeat to Bayer Leverkusen, saying his players “didn’t try”.
Guardiola had made 10 changes for the game but was left unimpressed by the squad players who had their opportunity at the Etihad Stadium, criticising them for playing not to make mistakes rather than to make things happen.
Asked if the defeat was a reminder of the difficulty of going for the major trophies, Guardiola said: “We know the competition is tough.
“It’s not about, of course, disappointing results, but always I’m talking most in the performance and of course the results help to have better performance. But I’m not that disappointed about [the defeat to] Newcastle, but the last one [against Leverkusen], for my decisions and we didn’t try. Simple as that.”
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Bernardo Silva questions Pep Guardiola making 10 changes in Manchester City’s 2-0 loss to Leverkusen in the Champions League
Guardiola says he retains his confidence in the ability of the players who came into the team but says they were too cautious on the ball.
“They played to ‘don’t make mistakes’,” he said. “Not to play to ‘I’m going to do something’. And that is so difficult.
“In football you have to play. In defence, you have to try. If you lose in the actions, you did it.
“They play to be safe. To don’t be, ‘oh, I’m making mistakes and I want to be noticed’ and that’s why it’s so difficult.”
On his decision to rotate players, he explained: “In football, when you play on the greens, you have to try things that we didn’t try.
“Maybe I’ll have a theory to rotate. You have to rotate because it’s impossible to sustain. But I had a lot of confidence in them, still, right now, I have a lot.
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Clinton Morrison discusses whether Pep Guardiola’s squad rotation in Manchester City’s Champions League loss to Leverkusen exposed their Haaland over-reliance
“I have a huge value of what they are as football players. Maybe it’s higher that I think about them than them themselves.
“It was a good lesson for me. So even [being] quite experienced as a manager, it’s a good lesson for me for the future.”
Pep too nice? He’ll be ruthlessly focused on win vs Leeds now
Sky Sports News’ Ben Ransom:
“Manchester City’s squad players might have fallen flat in midweek but they are still on Pep Guardiola’s Christmas List.
“After the defeat by Bayer Leverkusen he said he was perhaps guilty of being too nice in giving so many of them minutes from the start, and when I asked him if he was now going to be less nice he smiled and said he will continue to be the beautiful person his parents raised!
“It was a rare light-hearted moment in an otherwise serious press conference. Pep is in the business of winning, and he realises how important it is that the players rediscover that habit before they give up too much ground in the title race.
“I think we can expect another raft of changes from the side beaten in midweek with the tried-and-trusted returning to the first XI.
“I think we can also say with some certainty that they will be laser-focused on getting back to business by beating Leeds.”
Rodri out again as Guardiola looks for response vs Leeds
With a series of short responses, Guardiola confirmed Spain midfielder Rodri would again be missing for Man City this weekend as he continues to recover from the hamstring issue he picked up at Brentford in October.
He also refused to be drawn too much on Premier League title-race talk, with leaders Arsenal going to second-placed Chelsea on Sunday. The Gunners hold a seven-point advantage on City after just 12 Premier League games but Guardiola says his focus is on Leeds – despite being aware of the “distance” Arsenal have already built up on his side.
“About next week and about the next game, I’ve always had experience to talk about what is the next game,” said Guardiola. “And after that we’ll see. I know the distance is already there.
“Arsenal is so strong. We see it game by game in the Premier League and the other ones. We start to see how it’s getting better and better as a team. And we’ll see.”
