Manchester City have been on the receiving end of a scathing assessment by Patrice Evra, who claims they have "no leaders".
The Premier League side have found themselves in the spotlight following the manner of their Champions League exit to Real Madrid. It is yet another shortcoming in Europe as they were undone by a late show from Los Blancos despite leading with just minutes to go.
City's football has often come in for huge praise and has resulted in huge amounts of silverware, especially during Guardiola's tenure. Their failure to capture Europe's top prize however has copped major criticism and Evra has taken aim at the lack of individuals willing to stand up in their time of needs.
He told Amazon Prime Video : " Manchester City needs leaders, but Guardiola doesn't want leaders. He doesn't want personality. He's the leader. That's why when they're in trouble they don't want to. They don't have anyone on the pitch to help them. He chooses his teams like that, he can't train people with personality. He did it at Barcelona, but he builds his team to control everyone. When things go wrong, he always decides."
Guardiola's last Champions League success came during his Barcelona tenure, when his side beat Evra's Manchester United at Wembley in 2011. The Catalan was unable to deliver the trophy at Bayern Munich however, falling short in three semi-finals whilst that trend has continued at the Etihad.
City have continued to make huge investments as they seek Europe's top prize. Erling Haaland is set to move to Manchester this summer, 12 months after the club shattered the British transfer record to add Jack Grealish. However Evra insists there is nothing other than money behind a player's decision to move to City.
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He claimed: "Real Madrid also has money, but it has a story behind it; Manchester City only has money and the players go to play there solely for that. Then they win trophies, of course, but a player chooses to go to Manchester City only because it offers you more"
Guardiola said following the shock defeat at the Bernabeu: “The Real Madrid players had been through this, we hadn’t experienced it. We were brilliant for the whole tie, but this depends on who scores most goals.” He also added: “We were under the cosh from Madrid. We knew what they’ve done in the past and they did it to us. When we were at our best, they turned the tie around.
“I’ve had really tough defeats, at Barcelona with Chelsea... we were so close... in this tournament it’s normal. We played better in the second half. We found some good football. Unfortunately we didn’t achieve our goal.”
