Pep Guardiola: Man City injury crisis no excuse for shock loss

Manchester Metropolis’s harm disaster proved expensive because the champions noticed a 32-game unbeaten Premier League run come to a shocking finish with a 2-1 loss at Bournemouth on Saturday, however supervisor Pep Guardiola most well-liked to not use accidents as an excuse.

The defeat dropped Metropolis to second spot, two factors behind Liverpool, who recovered to beat Brighton & Hove Albion 2-1.

“I do not know what would have occurred. I wish to let you know if these gamers [weren’t injured], we’d have received, however no person is aware of,” Guardiola informed reporters. “The blokes give all the pieces, however not sufficient to compete in opposition to that staff in that second.”

Metropolis’s loss got here on the heels of a midweek defeat at Tottenham Hotspur within the League Cup fourth spherical.

Guardiola mentioned his staff paid the worth for a scarcity of depth as Bournemouth received by objectives from Antoine Semenyo and Evanilson.

“We could not match as much as the depth,” he mentioned. “All of the conditions with the lengthy balls, we could not win it.

“And when you do not win these kind of balls to Semenyo and others, our central defenders and strikers need to defend deeper.

“Now we have gamers with rhythm and the opposite gamers have a scarcity of rhythm as a result of we couldn’t prepare as a result of accidents. However we knew it.”

On Friday Guardiola mentioned he had urged his stars to play by ache “like Rafael Nadal” and feared he may need solely 11 senior gamers match to function within the Bournemouth sport.

Metropolis have been already lacking Jack Grealish, Rodri and Oscar Bobb and in his pregame interview Guardiola mentioned Rúben Dias and John Stones have been additionally “dominated out for somewhat little bit of very long time.”

Captain Kyle Walker was one in all a number of gamers who had not been anticipated to function on Saturday however began, whereas Kevin De Bruyne was again on the bench after a prolonged harm layoff.

“Kyle in 16 days did not prepare one session with us, made an unimaginable effort,” Guardiola mentioned, including that a number of different gamers had “niggles.”

“[But] it isn’t nearly that,” the Metropolis boss added. “[Bournemouth] have been tough to play within the first half; the second half we have been a lot better.”

Walker mentioned if Metropolis had been lucky sufficient to have extra wholesome our bodies, a number of ailing gamers may need been rested.

“Most likely ideally, however we’re not in that place,” he mentioned. “We do not use that as an excuse, you must give full credit score to Bournemouth.”

Metropolis have little time to get well as they head to Lisbon to play Sporting within the Champions League on Tuesday.

“It is the schedule that we have been dealt, no excuses,” Walker added.

Bournemouth’s victory was their first over Metropolis within the south-coast membership’s historical past and had Cherries followers on the Vitality Stadium cheekily chanting: “Can we play you each week?”

“I am very happy. One factor is to beat Metropolis however one other is to play higher,” Bournemouth supervisor Andoni Iraola mentioned. “We performed with no worry, tried to press once we may and defend once we needed to.

“You recognize you must be at your finest stage [to beat a top team] and watch for them to not have their finest day.”

Data from Reuters contributed to this report.