Pep Guardiola
Pep Guardiola was delighted with the passion on show from his City team against Bournemouth in the FA Cup quarter-final
Pep Guardiola has put Manchester City's struggles this season down to a lack of "heart and soul", ingredients that he hopes are on their way back after a superb second-half performance secured a seventh successive FA Cup semi-final.
City beat Bournemouth 2-1 at the Vitality Stadium to book a Wembley date with Nottingham Forest and keep their chances of silverware alive for the campaign, and after the win Guardiola hailed the desire on show in his team.
His team have struggled at times this season, with their attempts to win a fifth successive Premier League title falling by the wayside during a difficult winter, while they were knocked out of the Champions League last-16 by Real Madrid.
But Guardiola said the slump hadn't been down to tactics, but instead a drop-off in those intangible qualities, something which he is now desperate for his team to recover, and pointed to the Premier League defeat at this stadium in November as an example.
"It has been a tough season for us," said the City boss. "We won the Community Shield but we were miles away from being contenders in the others.
"We are happy to bring our people to Wembley again. We cannot accept the performance [against Bournemouth] in November because a lot of people came for five hours to Manchester to see our game.
"It's not tactics - they're important but what we missed this season was heart and soul and the desire that we have always done for many years. This for me as a manager is the most important thing to recover. It's not about selling or buying players.
"Recover the soul, this passion, that we played losing to Spurs in the Carabao Cup. This was not a problem but after Bournemouth [in November] we started making mistakes and as a team we didn't have heart. That is the most important thing to recover in the future because with that we are a team and we can be so proud."
City have had their struggles with injuries this season and are still missing key players, but Guardiola also pointed the finger at himself and his failure to find a solution quicker.
"It was many things. I put Pep first on the list. I should have taken decisions I didn't take in the right moment," he said.
"If it was just one, it would be easy. Incredible injured players. Many, many, many things happened. We tried to solve it but I was not able to find a solution to bounce back quicker.
"Bournemouth are a fantastic team and if they had gone through I would have said congratulations but we would have lost the way I like. In Nottingham Forest, was it like the team that played today? No. Hopefully until the end we can change and learn from that and prepare for next season."
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