Pep Guardiola admits that his wrestling city stars in Manchester City cannot keep possession like before -and cannot match the physicality of other Premier League teams.
The city boss gave a brutal candid insight into the stunning fall of his team from Grace, while they prepared to face Newcastle in a crucial competition for their top four hope in the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
City's Midweek Champions League defeat against Real Madrid – when they gave the holders two late goals to lose 3-2 – was the seventh time this season that they thrown away leads. And Guardiola says that his players are simply physically unable to meet the standards they have established in the past when they won six Premier League titles in seven seasons – including four in a row.
He said; “We can't hold on for 90 minutes, that's right. We are in this posotie because we are not good enough. In the second half against Madrid, when they keep the ball and start playing, playing, playing, regaining the ball and Do you want to try to score a goal in two seconds. [Kylian] Mbappe and Vinicius run even more.
“During the great, great success of the team, we were able to do sequences of 20, 25, 30 fits in half of the opponents – now we can't do that.
“Before we had the confidence to play with the ball and now we suffer when we have the ball. We take risks and make mistakes – that did not happen in previous years. I accept that when the opponents have the ball, I went going but now we suffer when we have the ball.
Guardiola also says that their lack of trust in the ball is exacerbated by the fact that opponents are rinsing his players and beating his players and fears that the Carabao Cup finalists of Eddie Howe can be a point of 15 straight league nethereal at Etihad end.
“Do you think we can compete against the physicality of Newcastle?” He added. “They are stronger, they are faster, they are faster than our players. Liverpool had always been stronger than we do. In this period Arsenal had always been stronger than we were. But we could win it [the title] Because we played – we came for the ball, we had the ball and we passed the ball.
“Now the situation is that we want to do it too quickly, we want to accelerate and score a goal because the people [crowd]They are like “Let's reach the second goal!” To score a goal, you have to play first. “
Apart from the problems of the city, Guardiola wonders whether their Premier League records of 100 points in 2019 will be matched or their four titles in a row will ever be matched because the level of the competition has increased with teams such as Brighton, Bournemouth and Fulham All stand up as top 10 contenders and able to beat the traditional 'big six'. “
“Who would do 100 points in modern football now? [win] four [titles in a row]? That is not normal now. I wait. Teams are much better in all departments. “
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