Pep Guardiola said that his brilliant Manchester City team are not good defenders – and can’t match rivals Liverpool for the pace of their attack. He side-stepped that comparison, but made the point that as individuals his players are not great at the basics of defending – tackling, interceptions, blocks, heading and so on.
Pep Guardiola said: “It’s the ball. If you see our players individually, we are not good defenders. We are not. So individually Bernardo (Silva), Gundogan, Kevin (De Bruyne), Raz (Sterling), Riyad (Mahrez), even Joao (Cancelo), Aleks (Zinchenko), we are not good defenders. But we have the ball. The ball is the only reason why you are stable. What you do with it – it’s the only reason. You create chances, it’s the ball. You concede few, it’s the ball. It’s how you play in the middle of the game – if the midfield players handle that, you’ll be stable behind and positive up front. Without that, the same players will concede a lot of chances. Against Newcastle, it was as simple as that – our three or four passes with the ball, go and attack quicker.”
City are set for another epic title race with Liverpool, who are three points behind – a gap City can stretch to six if they beat Leicester tomorrow, with Jurgen Klopp’s side seeing their clash with Leeds called off due to a Covid outbreak at Elland Road. And Guardiola said that the Merseysiders have a facet of their game that City cannot match.
Pep Guardiola said: “We cannot attack quicker. We are not Liverpool. They are masters at that, we are not. We don’t know what we have to do with that. We know we have to drive, to drive, to drive and to play with the ball. In the first half they (Newcastle) ran and created two or three chances. In the second half, more passes, more passes, more patience. Patience doesn’t mean lazy, slow. It’s the ball. If you have the ball, you are in order and everything is stable. Stability is the ball. It’s not about defending 40 metres behind or 40 metres up front, or high pressing, or defending, or long balls, or whatever. To be stable as a team, it’s the ball, no more than that.”
