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Pep Guardiola labels his tactics ‘horrible’ following Manchester City’s win over Arsenal.
Pep Guardiola described his first-half tactics against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium as “horrible.”
Despite being tied at one goal each at the break, City was significantly outplayed in the first half due to Arsenal’s ability to take advantage of space left open by Guardiola’s very peculiar 3-2-4-1 formation.
Guardiola acknowledged that his first-half strategy was flawed in an interview with Prime Video after the game, but claimed he corrected it in the second to help City win.
“In the first half they were much better than us, in the second half we were much, much better. At half-time we said that we were not playing, we were just defending because they were so good, and we should be more active. The second half was then excellent,” he explained.
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When asked what frustrated him about the first-half performance, Guardiola replied: “My tactics. I decided to try something new and it was horrible. We let them dictate the build up and our shape let them play, and when you let them play with Jorginho and [Granit] Xhaka then they were able to find players in behind – especially [Martin] Odegaard and the runners outside.
“So at half-time we adjusted a little bit, Ruben [Dias] was really good at being closing down Odegaard more aggressively and we controlled more of the ball and played more.
“Erling [Haaland] helped us a lot because we had to play more long balls and he was able to use his power to keep the ball.
“We are built as a team to go as a crazy team. When you wait, float a little bit, the opponent. That’s not who we are. In the second half we were more aggressive, winning duels. When that happens, we’re a better team.”
City is currently leading the Premier League standings, ahead of Arsenal on goal differential, as a result of their strong second-half performance.