Pep Guardiola accused his players of lacking “guts” and the Manchester City fans of being too “comfortable” in an extraordinary rant after their win over Tottenham on Thursday night.
City came from 2-0 down at half-time to beat Spurs 4-2 thanks to two goals from Riyad Mahrez and one each from Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez. After conceding twice in quick succession, City flew out of the traps in the second half to blow Spurs away by scoring three times in 12 minutes.
But rather than praise his team for their comeback, Guardiola used his post-match media opportunities to launch into a direct criticism of his players. Speaking with Sky Sports, before storming out, he said the men in sky blue lacked the “passion and desire” to win and claimed it was “bulls***” to suggest they haven't been successful because they haven’t won the Champions League under his management.
The City boss was similarly spiky in his post-match press conference with the written media, and it has emerged that he gave a similarly scathing take to Norwegian outlet Viaplay, who had former Premier League striker Jan Aage Fjortoft asking the questions.
Here is the transcript from their conversation:
Fjortoft: Well boss, congratulations on your birthday yesterday and on your win, of course. When you are 2-0 down, more or less out of the blue with two big chances with Erling [Haaland], try to explain to the fans, the supporters, what is going through your mind when you're going from the bench into the dressing room. Change players, change tactics? What do you say?
HAVE YOUR SAY! Does Pep Guardiola have a point, or he is overreacting? Comment below.
Guardiola: You're right, we were not playing bad, the expected goals from Tottenham, one of the best teams, was 0.89, but we gave them. We gave them today, we gave them to opponents many, many times. We don't have passion, we play good but we don't have passion. We don't defend ourselves. Rico Lewis concedes four fouls and nobody defends him. Yeah, we play good, yeah, it was good, but we are far away. Right now, today, I realise. Today, we are winning 4-2, but, this season, we change or we are not going to win anything.
Fjortoft: So, what are you going to change?
Guardiola: That is my duty.
Fjortoft: Where do you start?
Guardiola: For the future?
Fjortoft: To win the title…
Guardiola: Of course, four Premier Leagues in five years. For Arsenal, it is two decades, don't win the Premier League. Two decades. There is no one playing except Gabriel [Jesus] and Oleks Zinchenko that won the Premier League. They kill every action of the game, we don't have that. Four Premier Leagues in five years, we don't have that. The two goals we gave them [Spurs] is because we don't have what you have to do to win it. We change, but not just this competition - the FA Cup, the Champions League, we don't have an option. No chance.
Fjortoft: So, in bad English, you have a lack of 'balls' in those situations?
Guardiola: No, it is not a lack of balls. I don't believe the balls make a solution. It is love for what you do, it is guts, it is stomach, these kind of things, we don't have it.
Fjortoft: What will you do to get it? For the rest of the season, because there are some games coming up now…
Guardiola: We will see. Now, we will put in some effort and we will see. Try to put it in the players. I need that passion from Julian [Alvarez], from Rico Lewis, Nathan Ake, I need that, we need that. Every duel is winning, every action is the last action of their lives. Otherwise, against this Arsenal or [Manchester] United, for example, it is not two decades, but how many years United don't win a Premier League? I was in Germany or in Spain [managing Bayern Munich or Barcelona] when they won the last one, and they have to do it, that is normal. But we have to do it again, this is the deal.
Fjortoft: If the passion is lost, where did it go? When did you lose that passion?
Guardiola: The stadium is comfortable, everyone is comfortable, it's fine, we won, we are nice. In October or November, we should win the league and everything, you know. Now, they cannot say we are the team that spends the most money because the last five years, spend net, we are the fifth or the sixth here in England, 12 or 13 in Europe. So, you cannot say that. They have to change the argument, but we have to find ourselves. Do you think I did something at half-time? I put the reality to all of us. People will say, 'nah because Kevin [De Bruyne] didn't play, Kyle [Walker], Joao [Cancelo] don't play, Phil [Foden] don't play, Aymeric [Laporte] don't play, Ruben [Dias] don't play, Bernardo [Silva] don't play, that is the reason why'. With the other ones, it is the same. When they start to realise that, we will make a step forward for the rest of the season.
