TURIN, ITALY - DECEMBER 11: Ilkay Gundogan of Manchester City looks dejected during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD6 match between Juventus and Manchester City at Juventus Stadium on December 11, 2024 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Ciancaphoto Studio/Getty Images)
TURIN, ITALY - DECEMBER 11: Ilkay Gundogan of Manchester City looks dejected during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD6 match between Juventus and Manchester City at Juventus Stadium on December 11, 2024 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Ciancaphoto Studio/Getty Images)
Pep Guardiola spent most of his press conference before Manchester City's Champions League tie at Juventus insisting that his side do not have a confidence issue.
Instead, Guardiola offered that they must focus on doing the simple things to gain confidence, but refuted the idea that the mentality in the dressing room has been affected by their losing run, which is in turn leading to more mistakes.
It won't have helped, then, that City followed his instructions but then lost their way after Ederson's latest mistake, and stumbled to another defeat at the Allianz Stadium. And it certainly won't have helped that one of his captains, Ilkay Gundogan, told national television that the City squad are in fact suffering with confidence and 'mental' issues.
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Gundogan said: "[Confidence] is a big part of it. That's a mental issue as well. You can see that we are sometimes one action we miss the ball or lose a duel and you see that we drop immediately and lose the rhythm. They don't even need to do much but it has such a big effect on us right now."
But Guardiola denied the verdict of his former club captain.
"I am not agreing with Ilkay," he said. "Of course it is tough, except one or two games in this period that were not good, the rest we were played good. I give credit to Juventus for the way they played and defended in the transitions. But we were incredible aggressive in our high pressing, the long balls.
"The back four was really good. It is a cross and [Dusan] Vlahovic is strong in this position. But the way we played I'm really pleased."
Speaking to TNT Sports he also disagreed with Gundogan. "He said that? No, we have done it today," Guardiola responded. "We have done it really well. We didn't lose many balls. We know that Italian teams defend so deep and are a master of these situations. We played who we are. The result is the result but the performance was there."
He also described the mood in the dressing room as stable. At full time, there appeared to be little said between players on the pitch as they applauded the travelling fans before trudging back to the tunnel.
"The dressing room is stable, when we win we are happy, when we lose we are not," he said. "What can we do? Feel sorry for ourselves. Prove it and go forward."