Man City Boss Pep Guardiola Demands More Pace & Passes Following 3-0 Win Over Huddersfield Town
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola urged his side to improve the quality of their play, following their 3-0 Premier League win over Huddersfield Town on Sunday.
The Citizens took the lead midway through the first half, with Terriers defender Christophe Schindler diverting Danilo's powerful effort into his own net. However, City began to look lethargic after taking the lead, barely troubling their opposition again before half time. Guardiola became frustrated on the sidelines as his side waltzed around with no real urgency.
Presumably fresh off of an earful of rage from their manager, the Premier League champions emerged more lively in the second half, with a quick-fire brace of goals from Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sané respectively ensuring they claimed all three points.
Speaking after the match via The Guardian, Guardiola claimed his team needed to improve in the coming weeks, saying: "If we want to achieve something and arrive in the last stages of all competitions, our game has to improve. More pace, more passes in a row. We were not able to make a lot of passes, 10-15 passes in a row.
"When a team defends like (Huddersfield), you have to commit sometimes to move them a little bit. That is what we have to improve. Always in football when you play good you have the ball as much as possible. Here we had the ball but not in effective positions and sometimes we lost the ball quite easily.”
The Catalan coach did however stress that there was no need to panic about the performance - which was, after all, a 3-0 win - adding: "During the season you have these kind of games, you cannot always be at your best level. We are happy we won but you always have to analyse what you have done. Hopefully we can improve in the next games.”
The Citizens' next match is against Burton Albion in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night, as Nigel Clough's side will somehow need to respond to their 9-0 thrashing in the first leg. Following the midweek dead rubber, Guardiola's men will then turn their attentions to the FA Cup, where they host Burnley in the fourth round of the competition.
