There’s little new under the sun for Pep Guardiola, the Manchester City manager who has revolutionized soccer as a manager for Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and now City.
But the Catalan genius is experiencing something for the first time right now, as City’s 2-1 loss to Brighton at the Amex Stadium on Saturday serves as the first time he’s ever overseen four-straight defeats across all competitions.
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City could’ve been clear to a win on the basis of their first half, as Erling Haaland scored early and the team piled up nearly two expected goals, but Joao Pedro came off the bench and produced a goal and an assist for the Seagulls.
Speaking on Peacock Premium after the game, Guardiola talked about how the injuries have hurt his team and that the four-straight losses should be viewed as two-straight Premier League setbacks.
Here’s Pep.
Pep Guardiola reaction — ‘Clean our heads over the break’
Pep tried his best not to strike an angry figure in his post-match interview, insisting that City’s first half would’ve been enough to run away with the game another day and that fatigue certainly hurt their chances late.
“The guys played really, really good so I don’t regret,” Guardiola said. “They were magnificent in many ways. Brighton were really good with the ball and a lot of pace up front. In the first half we were really good and brilliant. In the second half, fatigue and they made changes we cannot do right now, and we lost the game.”
City were without John Stones, Ruben Dias, Rodri, and Jack Grealish, while Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake were not fit on the bench and Kevin De Bruyne only good for about a quarter-hour.
But he did not like the talk of his four-game losing streak with cup losses to Spurs and Sporting Lisbon sprinkled into PL losses to Bournemouth and Brighton.
“Two in the Premier League,” Guardiola said. “You have to count the victories and defeats, and we win a lot. I know it’s the first time [for four-straight losses in his career] and everyone wants to talk about that. It’s not nice to be defeated two in a row. Performance in certain moments is good but not all the minutes we would need.”
So what needs to change at the break?
“I don’t know but we will be better for the fact that we will have players to play,” Guardiola said. “The game was there. We played really good. First half we had three or four clear chances, but it is what it is.”
“Clean our heads over international break and the players come back fit, more players to do it, and altogether. You know you have to play every three days. The success we’ve had the last few years is with so few injuries. We need to be more consistent like we played the first half.”
