Pep Guardiola has revealed what he didn’t like about Manchester City’s first-half performance in their recent 2-0 win over Everton.
Having gone in at half-time with a 0-0 scoreline, Erling Haaland scored two second-half goals to secure the three points for his side as the Citizens take a step closer to potentially regaining the Premier League title.
Despite seeing his side pick up another victory, Guardiola wasn’t too impressed with what he saw from his players in the first period of the game and wasn’t shy in making his feelings known after the final whistle.
Guardiola displeased with City’s first-half display against Everton
Speaking to TNT Sports after the Everton match, Guardiola had this to say about what he saw from his side.
He said: “In the first half, our body language was not good. We complain all the time and that is not the way. In the second half, they were more positive and you have to be positive when you do something.”
Looking back over the first half against the Toffees, City had 74% possession and 10 attempts at goal, although eight of them were blocked and two were off target, meaning that they didn’t give Jordan Pickford too much to do in the Everton goal.
Then in the second period, the Blues ended up having nine shots at goal with three being on target, three being off target and three blocked.
Taking into account what Guardiola said in his post-match interview, it would be safe to assume that he would have told his players at halftime that they needed to change their attitudes and be more clinical in front of goal.
Whatever it was that was said to the City players before they came out for the second half, it seemed to have done the trick.
Moving forward, this could now be seen as a lesson for the players that their attitudes can have a big impact on the team’s performance, meaning that this will be another aspect they will have to master if they want to continue winning matches.
