Pep Guardiola’s Man City reclaimed first place in the Premier League standings with a key win against championship rivals Arsenal, but he conceded his team triumphed despite his tactics.
Pep Guardiola has admitted he made a “horrible” decision for Man City’s win over Arsenal (Image: Amazon Prime)
Pep Guardiola lamented his “horrible” new tactics despite Man City claiming a crucial win over Arsenal on Wednesdya night.
Goals from Kevin de Bruyne, Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland handed City a crucial three points in the Premier League title race. City now return to the top of the table, leapfrogging the Gunners, who have a game in hand on their title rivals.
Guardiola had tried something unusual in his set-up for the game, with Bernardo Silva frequently dropping into left-back from his normal midfield spot. While that ploy appeared to work to keep Bukayo Saka quiet, City also gave up possession as a result.
In fact, the visitors had just 36 per cent of the possession during the titanic clash, their lowest amount of the ball under Guardiola’s management. And the City boss admitted he was annoyed with himself for how he decided to set up his team.
“My tactics because I decided something new and it was horrible,” he told Amazon Prime when asked what frustrated him most with City’s performance.
“Second half was more like we are. We let them play the build up, our shape, we let them play. When you let them play with Jorginho, Xhaka, Alex [Zinchenko], they found the players in behind, Odegaard, the runners outside up top.
Guardiola hailed Bernardo Silva for his performance against Arsenal
“In the second half we adjusted and it was good, go in more aggressive to Odegaard and we controlled more of the ball, we played more, we played more, and Erling helped us a lot because we had to use more long balls and used his power to keep the ball.
“In the first half they had one more man in the middle, it was hard to control it and that’s why we suffered, but in the second half we were there.”
Despite those “horrible” tactics, City were still able to claim a crucial win, one which shoots them back to the top of the Premier League table. And Guardiola picked out the performances of Silva and De Bruyne as being critical for his team.
“Normally we put Bernardo in the middle, but man-to-man they have an extra man in there so that’s why it’s a little bit useless. Bernardo is so important for us, so intelligent, so clever to understand what is going on,” the City boss said.
“He is adapting to correct everything and the started at left back and finished right winger, so. I’m not going to discuss how important Kevin is for us but sometimes with the shape of Tottenham, so deep, 5-4-1, playing in the pockets he’d struggle a little bit.
“I decided to put two strikers for a bit more presence in the box. That’s about tactics, it’s not about form or I don’t like Kevin de Bruyne.
“It’s just sometimes I saw the opponent, I saw do I want more presence in the box to score more goals? That’s the reason why. And also there is a lot of games, everyone has to play.”
Pep Guardiola praised one of the best performances from Erling Haaland in a Man City shirt as they beat Arsenal 3-1.
Haaland scored… again (Image: 2023 Getty Images)
Haaland’s last visit to North London saw him fail to record a shot in the box for the first time in his short career in English football as City’s 1-0 defeat by Spurs in North London prompted wild overreactions about his place in the team and at the club. However, those critics will once again be silent after Haaland’s 26th league goal of the campaign – the most any City player has ever scored in a single season and with 15 games still to go – helped City go top.
In addition to the goal, the Norwegian was a problem for the Arsenal defence all night. He almost won a penalty after getting on the wrong side of Gabriel and had an important role in the build-up for Jack Grealish’s goal.
“It was brilliant, one of the best. We should play more that way – we told him,” said Guardiola. “We have to contact in the first step, so central defenders to Rodri or Bernardo, to Kevin or Gundo you have to find wingers and strikers.
“We have to be more direct, not for the long balls but passes. The first half the problem was it was just long balls, not passes. When people complain of no hat-trick every time it is standards. When your standards are 26 goals so far in few games, people expect this is always going to happen like people expect we will win the Premier League every single season.
“We are not going to win the Premier League every single season., what we want is to fight for that and not give it to them, if you want the crown then fight for that. if you win it, it is because you deserve it. Today, in many things, in the bad moments in the game we were not ‘oh my god’ not there. Everyone was really focused. In the second half we were much much better.”
source: www.mirror.co.uk
