Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola gave his verdict after his side were defeated by Juventus (Image: TNT SPORTS)
Pep Guardiola disagreed with Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan as he gave his reaction to the Citizens’ 2-0 Champions League defeat to Juventus. City slipped to their second European defeat of the season as Dusan Vlahovic and Weston McKennie found the back of the net for the hosts.
City were devoid of ideas in front of goal, second best in midfield and exposed in defence as their miserable run of results continued in Turin.
And their hopes of reaching the knockout stages without having to go through the play-offs were all but killed off on the night as they ended the evening five points adrift of eighth-place Lille.
Guardiola spoke to TNT Sports after the final whistle. And the Spaniard explained: “We played good, really, really good. We missed the last part, the last action when we arrive.
“I'm so proud of these players. They gave everything and they tried and hopefully we can change the results. I know it is difficult but we played really good.
“We didn't lose many balls like in the past. We tried, we arrived in the positions but Italian teams, they defend so deep. We played who we are. We missed the result but the performance is there.”
But his assessment contradicted the sentiments of Gundogan, who had spoken to the same broadcaster moments earlier.
The German had taken aim at his team during his interview as he admitted: “It’s very disappointing. We had chances to score a few goals but at the moment it feels like every attack we concede is just so dangerous.
“I don’t know, I have a feeling sometimes we are a bit careless with duels, instead of playing simple we overcomplicate things and we missed the right timing to release the ball. Just lose the ball and give them counter attacks.
“We are built for possession, keep the ball, be strong, if you can’t do anything don't lose it. At the moment it’s not working out for us.”
And the 34-year-old added: “\[Confidence is\] a big part of it and obviously that's a mental issue as well. You can see that. We sometimes, one action we miss the ball, lose a duel and you see that we drop immediately, lose the rhythm, they are able to break our rhythm with the easiest of things. They don't even need to do much.
“You have to do the simple things as good as possible. Work hard again, this is how you get confidence back, even in the game if you miss something, by doing small and simple things you get confidence back. At the moment we are always doing the wrong things. I feel like we know exactly what's going wrong.”