Given the odd alchemy that existed between the Manchester City boss and Tottenham‘s Jose Maurinho from the early days, it’s anybody’s guess what the former’s reaction would’ve been with the 2-0 loss that City suffered at the hands of Spurs in yesterday evening’s fascinating clash between the two old rivals.
Immediately after City were beaten 2-0 by Spurs in the Premier League, the rumours were rife that Guardiola had gone totally ballistic and locked his players in the dressing room. After about a 45-minute interval, the Catalan finally emerged, wearing a composure that was the total opposite of what had been erroneously surmised by over-anxious observers earlier.
When Sky Sports’ Geoff Shreeves finally got to speak to Guardiola, he found out that the enigmatic City boss had been only too keen to conduct an inquest with his boys right after the game to determine where things had gone askew. It definitely wasn’t because Pep wanted to toss his players on the grill for not being able to secure the much-needed win. Surprisingly, he had actually been very relaxed the way he had spoken to his team in the dressing room, not to find fault but to determine how best to move forward.
When Shreeves posed the question whether he had any criticism about his players in relation to the evening’s performance on the pitch, Pep’s response was:
“Never. With this performance? How should I be critical after this performance?”
“I was talking to my staff and my wife. After this performance it would be an incredible mistake to say how bad they are. We created chances and conceded few.”
He then proceeded to explain the rather long delay for the customary post-match press conference:
“Never when we lose do I stay away from my players because I know them.”
“We lost the game so we talked about how to move forward and keep going. There’s a lot of months to play and try to do it. If I would find the solution I would try to work on that. It would be a mistake not to let them feel incredible and fantastic after that game, football is sometimes like this.”
“To believe in this concept, you are closer to win the game. Few times this season it did happen and it happened.”
He added: “I don’t have too many things to say about the performance.”
Truth be told, it was a match that City ought not to have lost. The final result did not truly reflect their overall excellent play except for the wasteful squandering of numerous scoring opportunities that finally sank them, including a fluffed penalty from Ilkay Gundogan that was saved by Hugo Lloris.
The Spurs goals that did the final damage came from Steven Bergwijn – who scored in his debut – and Heung-min Son.
This resonates well for Liverpool as they are now only six wins away from their first-ever Premier League title.