Manchester City are playing to their strengths, Pep Guardiola insists, even if that may come across as a side that doesn't take enough risks to find Erling Haaland in recent games.
City have lost just once in eight games, but have been held by both Nottingham Forest and RB Leipzig this week despite having 35 attempts on goal in the two 1-1 draws. In both games, City have struggled to get Haaland involved in the game, and were criticised in some quarters for not taking enough risks in those games - especially at Leipzig.
However, Guardiola hit back and said City should have won 5-0 at Forest, while he defended his more cautious tactics at Leipzig and took responsibility for Haaland's quiet week.
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"Absolutely the coach [is responsible]. We share our faults together, its nicer," he said. "We cannot forget we play a lot, years, without a proper striker, Sergio [Aguero], Gabriel [Jesus], false nine. We don't pay more attention there, now with the one we need a little bit more.
"We need a lot of control, people don't want to take risks. If you put the ball inside with a lot of players is a risk pass. That’s why it's my fault, absolutely.
"It's perspective, if we get the ball and he has seven players with him, I play the ball there [wide]. Now wheres Erling? Six players [on him] – so I play the ball here [wide] instead. If he's alone I have to play with him."
Asked if City take enough risks in those situations to find Haaland, Guardiola launched into a lengthy defence, insisting that statistics and scorelines don't always paint the full picture.
He used last season's dominant Champions League last-16 win at Sporting, and Manchester United's Europa League epic with Barcelona as examples of games where the losing side hasn't been as bad as the subsequent reaction would suggest.
"Look at Barcelona. Can we think that United were good in the second half, not that Barcelona was bad?" he said. "The media in Spain will say it’s bad, the media here will say it’s perfect. One goal, little details. One team is out.
"Last season, in this stage of the Champions League, we won 5-0 in Lisbon. You know what I heard? ‘How bad are Sporting Lisbon, they can’t compete with Manchester City.’ Five shots on target, five goals. Ah, look how good the manager is! This season, we’ve had these chances. Now it was 1-1 in Leipzig, and how disastrous are City?
"How many goals have we scored in the Premier League? We are the best. We score a lot. I never told them not to take a risk. I didn’t want to take a risk in the process, I didn’t want it in that game. I would’ve loved to have won 4-0. It could have been 3-0 in the first half.
"Every time, when I see the adjectives from ex-players about the performances it is not nice. 'Disgrace' or other words: how do you say that? We made an incredible high press in the first half but they broke it three or four times. Do you know why? Because they are good. Not because we were wrong with our movements. We had to defend."
Returning to his own side, Guardiola said City are playing to the strengths of the players available when they play more cautiously against teams like Leipzig.
"We don’t have these players [who can run 40 metres like Leipzig]. Can Bernardo? No. Can Gundogan? No," he said.
"Just Erling, just Kyle and when Kevin plays. Maybe Jack. The rest? No. I didn’t want that in the first leg, that is why we played that way. They were better in the second half because we didn’t press properly.
"The players are humans – they know what happened against Tottenham and Aston Villa - and they think, ‘Oh, I don’t want to make mistakes because it’s the Champions League.’
"I had Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane and with that team we attacked in different ways. Now we don’t have them, for many reasons. We have Jack and Riyad so we play another way. But I know if we put Kevin or Phil on the pitch, we can run, attack quick.
"If we draw or lose, I’m wrong – I know that. But I thought that we wanted this type of game. After that, we missed a little bit with Erling. The players want to find this animal and score three goals every day. We want it.
"What can I say against Nottingham Forest, honestly? What can I say after Arsenal? With 35 per cent possession, how we ran, and then play and behave how we did at Nottingham. It was a 0-5 [game], honestly.
"The reality now is that we conceded one shot on target against Everton and dropped two points. One shot on target against Nottingham, we dropped two points. We had chances and chances but did not score. You ask Pep for a reason? It’s football. There is no explanation."
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