Manchester City: Pep Guardiola’s unbalanced team clinging to faint title hopes
“With Rayan and Jeremy, we made changes to make the players more dynamic [Doku] and Phil [Foden]Guardiola said in his post-match press conference: “But we didn’t win the game.
“Maybe we could have been more aggressive in the first half, but this season we are struggling with creativity, crosses and dribbling. The team did everything but they need to be better in the last third and that has been the case in many matches this season.”
When asked about choosing Semenyo over Cherki as number 10, she said: “Absolutely, there is no one better for this role [Cherki]. This is a bad choice, you can criticize me, I deserve it.
“Sometimes we’re learning to get the balance. We played with Cherki and Haaland, they’re incredible, but we don’t have the stability that teams in the Premier League need to have. “I’m trying to deal with that and the team is still growing.
“Rayan’s influence on the bench is incredible, but sometimes he doesn’t have the pace, so we play with Semenyo. I’m still trying to find the best way to provide consistency and balance the team.”
Haaland’s form stands out as he struggled more than other teams against West Ham, against whom he scored 11 goals in the Premier League.
“This is not about lack of goals,” Guardiola said of the Norwegian striker. “We need to create more. It will come back.”
City can’t win well, but they also have a hard time winning ugly.
They have lost just once in their last 18 league matches, but have dropped 10 points from winning positions in that time; This was enough to cost them first place in the current rankings.
In the matches they won, they drew with Chelsea, Brighton, Tottenham, Nottingham Forest and now West Ham.
This will sting, given that the second one came just hours after Max Dowman-starring Arsenal secured a stunning victory over Everton.
Guardiola later laughed and said that he drank a pre-match beer instead of following the Arsenal game with his team due to the touchline ban.
He also joked that he would receive more yellow cards for preferring the view from the stands and reluctantly answered a question about whether Haaland was limping.
It felt like Guardiola would cry if he didn’t smile.
