Pep Guardiola insists Manchester City have not changed their playing style and has reiterated that Arsenal ‘were better’ in their 1-1 draw on Sunday.
City were accused of parking the bus against Mikel Arteta’s side at the Emirates Stadium last weekend as they registered just 32.8 per cent possession – the lowest of any side managed by Guardiola in a top-flight league game.
But Guardiola insists he has not radically altered City’s approach to games and believes Arsenal deserve more credit for putting his side on the back foot.
‘I said many times, I would say, jokes aside, for the fact that always when we won the Premier League, we were a boring team, right? So that’s why I said, ‘okay, I’m going to use counter-attacks more this season’. Maybe the players in the future can talk about how much I changed this season compared to the other ones,’ Guardiola said.
‘Maybe they are the most credible to talk about if really, really I changed the approach because they are in every meeting, they are in every game, they are in every post-meeting, post-game. You can ask them.
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‘I think it’s completely the same, completely. What changed is the opponents play a different way, we are not able to do it better. I said after the game, Arsenal were better.
‘I don’t like to play in the way we played at Arsenal, but there are a lot of things I love it, I didn’t have in the past but I love it. And I said in this press conference but the way we want to play and sustaining that.
‘Always I believe when I started being a football player with Johan Cruyff and the teams make man-to-man, always said to me, ‘when you have the ball, Pep, as a holding midfielder, look [for] Romario, look up front.’
‘Why should I be close when that guy is being marked and this guy is being marked and this guy is being marked and this guy is being marked?! I have to play there [long]. Because there he’s one against one. You play, and it’s against one against one. And you want to play one against one Erling? Play one against one Erling. If you lose that duel, it will be a goal. We’ll see what happens, right?
‘So read that situation because before we have one more player to do the process and doing that. Against Napoli, we changed the way we play against Napoli? Three days later, we changed our way to play. I’m really good, changing absolutely everything in three days. I must be a really, really good manager.
‘Sometimes the opponents are good and create the challenges that you cannot handle and the other one. But since I retire in this club, or I retire, I would love to play in the way I want to play. Sometimes we are not able, sometimes we are not good, sometimes the opponent is better. But for one game it’s bad and saying that the team is going.
‘Yeah, I want to make the transition. When we defend deep, always I say, ‘when we defend deeper because they are better or we are s***, you can run, run, you can run on transition, run’. But it’s because we are there. But in the principles, I prefer to regain up the pitch, and make a lot of possession to de-structure the opponents, to try to punish them.
‘Always I’ve been like that and always I will be like that. If it doesn’t happen, I tell you what, it’s because we were bad, we were not good. Not because we want to do that. That is, I would say.’
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