Pep Guardiola declared he has been ‘massacred’ as the Manchester City boss launched an impassioned defence of his team selection in their Champions League defeat by Real Madrid.
The Catalan gave a marathon four-minute, 25-second answer addressing Wednesday night’s 3-0 defeat at the Bernabeu, where he revealed to being aware of social media criticism of the line-up chosen to beat Newcastle United in the FA Cup at St James’ Park last weekend.
Guardiola took heat for abandoning the narrow midfield that has been deployed in recent weeks for two traditional wingers in Jeremy Doku and Savinho, while Nico O’Reilly reverted to left back.
‘How many times do I hear, “Pep is a genius” for the team selection?’ he said. ‘Genius if you win. What happened in Newcastle? Did you read the comments before the game, (about) my team selection, on the social media?
‘How is Rodri not playing, how is Bernardo (Silva) not playing, how you don’t play this player, how do you leave Erling at home? We won 3-1. After that, “oh, Pep, how brilliant you have been”.’
Guardiola then mimicked critics firing guns when criticising his decision-making in the Champions League, even raking over the controversial selection of Ilkay Gundogan when Chelsea beat them in the 2021 final.
‘It’s 17 years I’ve been managing in that competition, and every time I lose, boom, my God. Pew, pew, pew,’ he said.
‘I have been massacred. Listen, I played a final of the Champions League without Fernandinho and Rodri as holding midfielder against Chelsea. Do you think that’s normal? No, honestly. Gundogan played in that moment. I was destroyed.
‘I knew how Rodri was playing and Fernandinho was playing, it was not the Rodri that we met after, and in the other positions there are a lot of times many decisions coming for many, many, many reasons, for how you handle the pressure and the other ones. I can explain that but is it going to convince you for the next time?’
Guardiola also implored Man City’s attackers to improve their movement inside the box amid Erling Haaland’s patchy goalscoring form.
Haaland has netted just twice from open play in his last 17 matches and struggled to make an impact at the Bernabeu.
City had ripped Real apart in the opening exchanges before Federico Valverde’s first goal but a number of dangerous crosses from Doku were not finished off.
Guardiola believes his players have lost an intuition in the final third and wants it corrected when City – seven points behind Arsenal – go to West Ham on Saturday night needing a win.
‘They have to move better,’ Guardiola said. ‘The players in the box have to make a movement before the pass, to smell where the ball will go.
‘It’s guts and nose, that is the question for them – that is all. You make a movement, beat your man before the ball (is played) and you will score. Make a movement. We insist.
‘It’s a question to improve, improve, improve and maybe next time will be better.’
Although still favourite to win another Premier League golden boot, Haaland’s form will be a concern for City. The 25-year-old was rested for Newcastle but has constantly said that he cannot use fatigue as an excuse for dipped performances.
Guardiola added: ‘I want a threat, I want to have people arriving to the goal, I want people to make (grunts) when we arrive with the wingers.
‘Erling is the No 1 in the world in that position. Of course he needs goals. The team need it and he needs it. We have to find him more.’
