Pep Guardiola has defended Manchester City’s tactics in the 1-1 draw with Arsenal on Sunday and insisted his approach to matches has not changed significantly this season.
Guardiola was accused of abandoning his principles at the Emirates, where City had just a 33.2% share of possession and scored their goal thanks to a quick break finished off by Erling Haaland.
It’s been suggested that the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss has ordered his team to play in a different way this season and “parked the bus” against Arsenal.
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But Guardiola insists his instructions remain largely the same and any change in style has been forced by their opponents.
“When we won the Premier League we were a boring team, right? So that’s why I said ‘OK, I’m going to make more counter attacks this season,'” he joked at a news conference on Tuesday.
“Maybe the players can talk about how much I’ve changed this season. Maybe they are the ones who have the most credit to talk if I really changed the approach, because they are in every meeting, every game, every post-match meeting. You can ask them. I think it’s completely the same. Completely.
“What’s changed is that the opponents play differently and we are not able to do it better.
“I said after the game that Arsenal were better. I don’t like to play the way we played at Arsenal but there are a lot of things that I loved; that I didn’t have in the past.”
Guardiola’s teams, whether in England, Germany or Spain, have been known for dominating possession.
And despite surrendering the ball to Arsenal no Sunday, the 54-year-old said he hoped it was a one-off rather than part of a wider tread.
He said: “We changed the way we played against Napoli? No. Three days later we changed our way to play [against Arsenal]? F— I’m really good, I changed absolutely everything in three days! I must be a really, really good manager.
“Sometimes the opponents are good and create a challenge that we cannot handle. Until I retire in this club or retire, I would love to play in the way I want to play. Sometimes we are not good, sometimes the opponent is better.
“When we defend deeper it’s because they are better or we are s—.
“In the principles, I prefer us to regain the ball high up the pitch, make a lot of possession to disturb the structure of the opponents and try to punish them.
“Always it’s been like that and always I will be like that. If it doesn’t happen it is because we were bad, not because we want to do that.”
