Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola continues to look disappointed and bemused by his side as they drew 1-1 at home with Everton on Boxing Day.
City have now won just one of their last 13 games in all competitions and coughed up a great chance to get back to winning ways as Erling Haaland had a second half penalty kick saved.
The Pep Guardiola reaction is extremely solemn at the moment as City lost more ground not only in the title race (which they really aren’t in anymore) but most importantly the scrap for a top four finish.
Pep Guardiola reaction after Man City draw with Everton
“We played really good but they are in the period right now where it happens. We create, we concede the first time they arrive but, yeah, keep going,” a downbeat Guardiola told Amazon Prime in the UK.
Asked if he saw some of the extra confidence he was hoping for from his side, Guardiola didn’t go that far but he did praise aspects of their performance.
“Yeah, we have to try, confidence will come with the results because always it is in our mind. The performance against that team was really cool. Defensively, offensively. We shoot a lot in the 18-yard box but unfortunately we couldn’t get the result we wanted.”
Asked what he wants to see his team to do against Leicester on Sunday, it was all about mentality for Guardiola.
“It is recovery, just three days, and we need to go there with the best mentality as possible. That is all we need to do,” Guardiola said.
Manuel Akanji was also asked by Amazon Prime in the UK if a draw was a fair result.
“I don’t think so, no,” Akanji said. “I think we did way more throughout the game. We created lots of chances. Unfortunately we only scored one goal and we conceded one, out of basically nothing. That is how football is.”
Akanji lamented City’s inability to finish chances and couldn’t believe they almost gave up a goal in stoppage time after pushing everyone forward.
“This was a game today where we were able to score two, three, four goals, but it didn’t want to go in,” Akanji said. “I’m being honest with you, it can’t happen that we nearly lose the game in the last minute. We are trying to attack and then we lose the ball and it’s a six against two situation in front of our goal. Luckily I could block the shot. But we still need to believe until the last moment that we can win the match but it wasn’t possible today.”
He was also asked if City can get back in the title race.
“The season is not finished but that [being in the title race] is not our target at the moment,” Akanji said. “We need to focus on game by game and the next one is coming against Leicester, it won’t be easy on the shape that we are in. We need to fully focus, recover and do the best in this match.”
Akanji also revealed City will take some confidence from this performance into their game at Leicester on Sunday.
“We did lots of things great. We defended well, we attacked well, we just weren’t able to finish the actions. If we are able to finish them I think there would have been three or four goals for us,” Akanji added.
