But when will Manchester City manage to get out of the crisis? For several months now, Pep Guardiola's training has been unrecognizable and has been defeating defeats. The Spanish technician, who ended up extending his contract last October, cannot find the solution. If her team was not spared from injuries with that of Rodri, she is also unrecognizable in her style of play with timid players and lack of confidence.
After making an interesting winter transfer window with several recruits, City surely expected to reverse the trend. But it is not the case and the defeat, on the wire, facing Real Madrid during the C1 dams confirmed the ills of this team. At a press conference this Friday, Pep Guardiola still made a speech that has nothing to reassure the fans. The former Bayern coach seems without solution and helpless in the face of this situation. “The great success of the team is when we managed to make 20, 25, 30 sequences of passes in the opposing half of the field, and now we can no longer. Of course, you have to insist, the team is made for that. Success comes from that, this way of building the team ”he launched first, seeming to regret the loss of the identity Tiki Taka.
A team physically dropped
“Now we don't do it because we want to score, because we want to speed up, because people say: Ah, let's score the second goal. No, no, stop, stop. To score first, we have to play, you know. Before we had the confidence to play with the ball and now we suffer when we have the ball. I accept that when the opponents have the ball, I will suffer. I accept it. But now we suffer when we have the ball. It had never happened before. We were comfortable with that. It's like that, because it's done for that. Now I can't change that ”explained Guardiola. The Spanish coach also pointed out the athletic deficit between his team and the direct competitors. If he has long asked his management to favor technical profiles, Guardiola now believes that his team is dropped on the athletic level against the wholesale of the championship with executives at the end.
“Do you think we can compete with Newcastle's physical strength?” They are stronger, they are faster, they are faster than our players. But it has always been. Zinchenko too when he was there and Sergio
(Gomez) was there, and what I said was that many fields were not physically strong. And what happened? We won. Now, I can't go to the gym for three days and put stronger, more lively and faster players. It will not happen. For example, from Bruyne, he is no longer the same. He is 33 years old. He came back from a 5 -month injury, and did not have a vacation because of the euro. At the time, he was running, he was shopping with Fernandinho and Rodri, today, it's more complicated. He is one of the players who have played his last 9 years the most ”he left before concluding on a slightly more positive note. “I don't give up, I continue to do it even when it's hard. This is the first time that I and many players have lived this situation but it must be accepted. The exception is what we did before in all our careers too. It's not normal either, but it may be less exceptional. Maybe we will finish 14th or 15th in the championship, but we are 5th, not in free fall as other teams may have had success in the past.. This could give the supporters a smile.
