Guardiola: Wasting chances hurt us... and I will congratulate Arteta

 

Guardiola

Guardiola: Wasting chances hurt us... and I will congratulate Arteta

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has said that missed chances have hurt his team a lot this season, adding that he will congratulate his former assistant Mikel Arteta when winning the league becomes impossible for his team.

The coach believes that Manchester created enough chances to win many of the matches that ended in a draw, but he thinks that the presence of a large number of new players this season may be one of the reasons for his team's declining scoring rate.
Despite Manchester City's complete dominance against West Ham, the team scored only one goal from 24 shots in the match that ended in a 1-1 draw.

Guardiola told the club's official website: "Football is unpredictable. They had one chance and scored, and it's happened to us before. We're always the dominant team in many aspects, but we haven't been able to score three or four goals.

 I remember the Sunderland game on January 1st; we played brilliantly and created chances, and the same against Chelsea and Brighton, and today it happened again. I'm not talking about the Arsenal game away, where they deserved to win, or the Manchester United game, where they were much better than us, but in the other games, we were far superior."

He added: "We have a lot of new players, and perhaps that's why our performance hasn't been consistent throughout the 90 minutes; we've had ups and downs. The Nottingham game sums it up a bit; in the last minute, Savinho shot with the goal gaping, yet it didn't go in.

This has happened a lot; we haven't scored enough goals, and I accept that. Opponents can score, but we've always been capable of scoring plenty; this season it hasn't been that. But I'm proud of these players after the trip to Madrid and the difficult result, and then coming to London and fighting until the end."

He added: "We played with more composure in the first half, and in the second we brought on Cherki, Rayners, Foden, and Doku to increase the dynamism and change the rhythm; we played well but couldn't win. We could have been more clinical in the final pass. Ultimately, we need to be more creative with our crosses, shots, and dribbling, and we've struggled with that a bit this season."

When asked if the nine-point gap with league leaders Arsenal meant the title was still possible, he replied: "It's complicated. If we had beaten Nottingham and today, it would be in our hands, but we have a game in hand and a home game against Arsenal. I'm always positive, and I'm optimistic about Tuesday's game. When winning the league is impossible, they'll have to celebrate, and I'll call Mikel to congratulate him."