Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola admitted his side are “fragile” after letting a three-goal lead slip against Feyenoord.
Having lost five games in succession across all competitions ahead of Tuesday night’s Champions League tie at the Etihad Stadium, the hosts looked on course to finally bounce back in some style.
An Erling Haaland brace sandwiched between an Ilkay Gundogan goal had the hosts 3-0 up after 53 minutes and it seemed that a confidence-boosting victory was on the way going into Sunday’s huge Premier League clash with Liverpool at Anfield.
However, City somehow managed to throw the victory away as they conceded three goals in the space of just 14 minutes with self-inflicted mistakes proving to be their undoing once again.
Despite ending the run of consecutive defeats, Guardiola agreed that the result felt like another loss and wasn’t pleased with how his side capitulated.
"We gave away the actions. The game was fine at 3-0, we were playing good and did not concede much [chances], but we have conceded many goals because we are not stable. We gave them the first and another one, and that's why it's difficult,” he told Amazon Prime Video.
"We have lost a lot of games lately, because we are fragile and we need a victory, the game was good for the confidence. We were playing at a good level.
“I don’t know if it’s a mental problem, their first goal cannot happen and the second as well, and after that we are desperate to win, desperate to do well. We do well but we don’t win games.”
Guardiola did still praise the positive aspects of the game; Haaland on the scoresheet, Rico Lewis’ performance and everything prior to conceding the three goals, but acknowledged that the final result is all that matters.
“There are a lot of good things,” he added. “But after 3-3, nothing much to say. We played a really good game but at that level we can not give them away.”
