Guardiola Defends City’s Tactics vs Arsenal: “I Haven’t Changed My Approach”

Pep Guardiola, Manchester City’s coach, has defended the strategy employed by his team in the 1-1 draw against Arsenal last Sunday. In addition, he has assured that his tactical approach has not undergone significant changes during this season.The critics focused on Guardiola after the match at the Emirates, where City had only 33.2% possession and scored their goal thanks to a quick counterattack finished by Erling Haaland.It has been suggested that the coach, known for his time at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, has modified the team’s way of playing this season, even going so far as to “park the bus” against Arsenal. However, Guardiola insists that his general instructions remain the same, and any changes in the style of play have been a response to the opponents’ tactics.

When we won the Premier League, we were a boring team, right? That’s why I said: ‘OK, I’m going to do more counterattacks this season,'” Guardiola joked in a press conference on Tuesday.

Pep Guardiola

Guardiola suggested that the players are the most suitable to talk about possible changes in their approach, as they are present in every training session and match. He affirmed that his approach is the same, and that any modification is due to adaptation to the rivals.The coach added that Arsenal played better in the match, and although he doesn’t like the way they played, there were aspects that he liked and that he hadn’t seen before.Guardiola’s teams, known for their dominance of possession, faced an unusual situation on Sunday. The Spanish coach hopes this is an isolated incident and not a trend.Guardiola ironized about the idea of having radically changed his strategy in such a short time, highlighting that sometimes opponents are superior or that his team does not perform at its best.

In the beginning, I prefer to recover the ball in the opponent’s field, to have a lot of possession to destabilize the opponent’s structure and try to punish them. It has always been like this and always will be. If it doesn’t happen, it’s because we play badly, not because we want to.

Pep Guardiola