Pep Guardiola says his team “celebrated” their vital win at Burnley by burying their heads in their phones. But the Manchester City manager said his squad are ready for the challenge of a fortnight that will make or break their bid for three trophies this season. But Guardiola smiled when asked how his players had reacted to an important victory and said
Pep Guardiola said: “Take the phone and look at the phone – Instagram. That is the generation of the football players. I take five minutes to talk but they take the phone. I give up – they do whatever they want. Tomorrow we talk about Atletico. As long as they are focussed during the game, the rest I don’t care.”
But while Guardiola was having a bit of generation-gap fun in despairing at his players’ phone obsession, he says that the squad is geared up for the titanic battles ahead: “What I say, they feel too,”
Pep Guardiola said. “They know how hard they fight, how tough is the opponent, how difficult is the Champions League and the FA Cup. But Liverpool feel it too. The way we played at Palace and Southampton in the Premier League we should be in a better position. We played much better (in the 1-1 league game) than we did against Southampton in the FA Cup (a 4-1 win). That is football. It’s an expression I love and use a lot – it’s football.”
Guardiola explained that Riyad Mahrez had been left out of the team at Burnley after Algeria’s failure to qualify for the World Cup finals a few days earlier had left him dejected
Pep Guardiola said: “Riyad is now a little bit sad, he is not in the World Cup with Algeria. You can find explanations, it is football. You cannot have time-out like basketball or tennis after service, it is football. How many times you play bad and lose? After six seasons, win, win, winning, still we are there, latter stage of the season, still we are there fighting for the title. That is why we are a big club, with a lot of money, I know that. The players know it. I said many times, you lose, you lose the competition. They train like this. I think our opponents feel it too.”
