Pep Guardiola says he harangues players on the training pitch just as he did Riyad Mahrez and Jack Grealish on Wednesday night. The Manchester City manager was spotted grabbing both players and shouting in their faces in the second half of the Blues’ 6-3 win over RB Leipzig, He was later unrepentant and said “Fights happen” when quizzed about it by a TV reporter, while Grealish revealed that the manager had been unhappy with his defensive work after being warned at halftime. Asked about Mahrez,
Pep Guardiola said: “Five, six seasons together he knows me quite well. The reaction I’ve done with Riyad in that moment I do it every day in the training session. My behaviour is the same there in the training sessions and in every single day. At training, we speak about what we have to do and they have to know they have to do it. I love to work with Riyad – he is a guy who accepts absolutely everything and he takes his responsibility, like the penalty in Dortmund to qualify for the semi-final for the second time in our history, and the penalty after 1-2 in the last minute (against Leipzig) – one of the best penalties I ever saw.”
Guardiola revealed that both players had been told the same thing at halftime, probably to negate the runs of the Leipzig full-backs, and that both had failed to act.
Pep Guardiola said: “I like to work with Riyad, he accepts the challenge and I like that. But he knows we spoke in the half time (about) one action that he should do and he and Jack didn’t do it. They have to do it otherwise Leipzig, who scored three goals, would have scored five or six. In that moment it is no time to be nice – we have to do what we have to do. But I don’t have any complaints in that. I know they accept it and they accept it when they tell me something and we move forward. When the standards are so high … we won three Premier Leagues in four years, we were the runners up in the Champions League so to win everybody has to be ready. Me first. Otherwise it will be difficult.”
