Anyone who had grown tired of Manchester City’s outright dominance of the Premier League must be loving their up-and-down campaign, but what was Pep Guardiola’s reaction to the four-time defending champions’ latest pair of dropped points?
One of resolution, it seems.
Guardiola said he liked his 10-man team’s fight in a 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace that saw City twice draw level through Erling Haaland and then Rico Lewis at Selhurst Park.
But Lewis was sent off for a second yellow card, and Guardiola is lamenting another missing player for next weekend’s Manchester derby at the Etihad Stadium.
City again dominated possession but Palace managed a similar amount of shot attempts, taking 1-0 and 2-1 leads on Will Hughes assists to Daniel Munoz and Maxence Lacroix.
Guardiola’s team have conceded plenty of goals during a long run of injuries. Rodri is, of course, out for the year, while Manuel Akanji, John Stones, Nathan Ake, Mateo Kovacic all missed out on the trip to Palace.
The absences have kept Guardiola from being able to truly rotate the team, and he’ll almost surely touch on that during his post-match press conference.
Pep Guardiola reaction — How did Manchester City boss react to latest thriller?
Pep Guardiola’s postmatch interview showcased terse responses that showcased his disappointment with an undermanned squad that’s grown with a red card for Rico Lewis.
On his side’s performance: “Really good, so proud as a team. I like everything on my team, and how we fought in the situation we are in. ... We have a lot of problems with the squad, mainly it’s that that.”
“We fought incredible. We came back twice in a difficult place to come. We struggled in the beginning but we gave everything and we’ll take a point.”
“Long ball, second ball, they were stronger than us. They tried to link the position from Rico. The tradition they have, they are fast but in general it was good.”
“We started the second half a little bit sloppy but in purpose to attack, to score. We scored the second and unfortunately we couldn’t play with 11 at the end of the game.”
On Rico Lewis yellow card adding to injuries: “We lost another player defensively for the next game for a second yellow card. It is what it is, so we move forward.”
Bernardo Silva reaction — Man City star laments injuries, squad size
"[It’s hard with games] 3 days after 3 days,” Silva said. “Of course we don’t feel sorry for ourselves.”
“My feeling on the pitch was that yeah we had the ball we controlled the game and created a few chances but we didn’t control the way we wanted to. We need to go back to doing the simple things properly. If the players come back, that will help a lot.
“We have to fight with what we have at the moment. But with a squad of 20 players if you have 13 available it’s not enough. With the schedule we have, it’s not enough.”
