Manager says team must do “our job” despite packed calendar and blames “reading” of the game for poor outing
Pep Guardiola has dismissed suggestions that fatigue was responsible for Manchester City’s “boring” performance against League Two side Salford in the FA Cup.
City’s manager instead said his side failed to read the game properly. The Premier League club won 2-0 on Saturday but after an Alfie Dorrington own goal in the sixth minute the tie hung in the balance for much of the game, until Marc Guehi scored his first goal for the club with nine minutes remaining in normal time to seal the victory.
Guardiola’s side were also disjointed in possession and struggled to create threats against a side 71 places below them in the English football tier.
“We didn’t read the spaces where they were,” said Guardiola. “Always the spaces we attack depends on where they defend and we didn’t read it.
“We have to spend a lot of time to make the process quicker and better. The only good news is we go through [to the next round].”
Guardiola complained earlier in the week that his side were “exhausted” and in his pre-match conference on Friday he said they were looking forward to a week off after facing Salford.
City have played twice a week since the turn of the year but will finally get a breather with a full week before their next fixture comes up on 21 February, against Newcastle in the Premier League.
“Would be nice to say that mentally we’re exhausted but this is our job and we have to do what we have to do,” said the City coach. “It’s just that we didn’t read the spaces. That’s why everything was flat and slow and it was not good.
“We have to move the ball quick to the opposite side and we didn’t do it. That’s why it was boring.”
