Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola defended his team’s tactics in 1-1 draw against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday. Erling Haaland scored the opening goal for the Sky Blues in the ninth minute but Gabriel Martinelli scored in the 93rd minute.
The Gunners dominated the contest as they had 67% possession and took three shots on target. Guardiola’s tactics came under the scrutiny as the Cityzens only had 33.2% possession. The Spaniard said the change in his side’s style of play was forced by the opposition.
“When we won the Premier League we were a boring team, right? So that’s why I said ‘OK, I’m going to make more counter attacks this season,’” he joked at a news conference on Tuesday.
“Maybe the players can talk about how much I’ve changed this season. Maybe they are the ones who have the most credit to talk if I really changed the approach, because they are in every meeting, every game, every post-match meeting. You can ask them. I think it’s completely the same. Completely.
“What’s changed is that the opponents play differently and we are not able to do it better.
“I said after the game that Arsenal were better. I don’t like to play the way we played at Arsenal but there are a lot of things that I loved; that I didn’t have in the past.”
Thus far during Spaniard’s glorious managerial career, his teams are known to dominate the possession but it was not the case against Arsenal.
He said: “We changed the way we played against Napoli? No. Three days later we changed our way to play [against Arsenal]? F— I’m really good, I changed absolutely everything in three days! I must be a really, really good manager.
“Sometimes the opponents are good and create a challenge that we cannot handle. Until I retire in this club or retire, I would love to play in the way I want to play. Sometimes we are not good, sometimes the opponent is better.
“When we defend deeper it’s because they are better or we are s—.
“In the principles, I prefer us to regain the ball high up the pitch, make a lot of possession to disturb the structure of the opponents and try to punish them.
“Always it’s been like that and always I will be like that. If it doesn’t happen it is because we were bad, not because we want to do that.”
Manchester City will next take on Huddersfield at the John Smith’s Stadium in the EFL Cup on Wednesday.
