Pep Guardiola names two things Man City players can no longer do in brutal assessment.
Pep Guardiola is keen to explain why his Manchester City side are no longer the force they once were after seeing them fall to pieces late on against Real Madrid in midweek
Pep Guardiola admits his struggling Manchester City stars can’t keep possession like they used to – and can’t match the physicality of other Premier League teams.
The City boss gave a brutally frank insight into his team’s stunning fall from grace as they prepared to face in-form Newcastle in a crucial game for their top four hopes at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
City’s midweek Champions League defeat to Real Madrid – when they gifted the holders two late goals to lose 3-2 – was the seventh time this season they have thrown away leads. And Guardiola says his players are simply physically unable to meet the standards they have set in the past when they won six Premier League titles in seven seasons – including four in a row.
He said; “We cannot sustain it for 90 minutes, that’s right. We are in this posotion because we are not good enough. In the second half against Madrid, when they keep the ball and start to play, play, play, we regain the ball and want to – in two seconds – try to score a goal. We lose the ball and then [Kylian] Mbappe and Vinicius run even more.
“During the big, big success of the team we were able to do sequences of 20, 25, 30 passes in the opponents half – now we are not able to do that.
“Before we had the confidence to play with the ball and now we suffer when we have the ball. We take risks and make mistakes – that didn’t happen in previous years. I accept that when the opponents have the ball, I’m going to suffer. But now we are suffering when we have the ball. It never happened before. We were comfortable with that.”
Guardiola also says their lack of confidence on the ball is compounded by the fact that opponents are out-muscling and out-running his players – and he fears Eddie Howe’s Carabao Cup finalists could end a run of 15 straight League defeats at the Etihad.
“Do you think we can compete against the physicality from Newcastle?,” he added. “They are stronger, they are quicker, they are faster than our players. Liverpool were always have been stronger than us. In this period Arsenal always have been stronger than us. But we were able to win it [the title] because we played – we came for the ball, we had the ball and we passed the ball.
“Now the situation is that we want to do it too fast, we want to accelerate and score a goal because the people [crowd], they’re like ‘let’s get the second goal!’ To score a goal you have to play first.”
Quite apart from City’s problems, Guardiola questions whether their Premier League records of 100 points set in 2019 or their four titles in a row will ever be matched because the level of competition has increased with teams like Brighton, Bournemouth andFulham all emerging as top 10 contenders and capable of beating the traditional ‘big six.”
“Who would do 100 points now in modern football? Or [win] four [titles in a row]? That is not normal now. I’m waiting. Teams are much better in all departments.”
