Pep Guardiola not happy with Manchester City’s build-up play

Manchester City’s three-game winning run in the Premier League was halted by a resilient Southampton side on Saturday. The defending league champions were held to a surprise goalless draw at home. What was more surprising was the team’s one shot on target in the whole match. Manager Pep Guardiola felt that City’s build-up play was not up to its usual standard against Southampton. The Spanish coach was particularly not happy with the passes from midfield and defence into the front three of Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and Jack Grealish. He felt it was one of the reasons why his team was unable to take all three points against the visitors.

City had found the back of the net 17 times in the previous four games coming into this fixture. However, they were made to wait until the 90th minute for a first shot on target, when substitute Phil Foden forced Alex McCarthy into a save with his header. The usual fluidity in possession was absent from City’s game on Saturday and the manager did not hide his emotions when speaking at his post-match press conference. “Today we didn’t win not because we don’t have a centre-forward,” he was quoted as saying by the club’s website.

“We didn’t win because the process to build up, to create, to give better balls to the players up front was not good. When it is good, you can run, you arrive in better positions. Of course, we had just one shot on target, but there were four or five blocked in the six-yard box, so we were there.

“That is not the reason [we didn’t win]. The reason is because we didn’t do the process for our back four and Fernandinho. The five guys who have to bring the ball to the other players was not good today.”

‘We struggled for the first 15 minutes in each half’

Southampton made life extremely difficult for City on an eventful Saturday. The hosts created the majority of the chances, but Ralph Hasenhuttl’s men defended solidly to nullify City’s attacking threat. Later, Guardiola acknowledged the visitors made it difficult for his team to execute their usual game plan.

“There are many ways to score a goal,” he added. “You can be set back and counter-attack or you can be direct. Our process is the goalkeeper passes to the central defenders, the central defenders pass to the full-backs, they pass to the holding midfielders, the attacking midfielders pass the ball to the wingers.

“In that process, we travel, we fly, we live all together to make the transition. This is our way. This process from the beginning was not perfectly what we wanted. It was difficult sometimes because the opponent was good. They defended well.

“Sometimes it is difficult and the opponent is involved in that. We cannot forget that. Sometimes we need more time to train, to practice. Today was like this. We struggled for the first 15 minutes in each half, but in the last 30 minutes we were better.”