Manchester City suffered a shock 2-0 defeat to Southampton on Wednesday evening, suffering elimination from the EFL Cup at the quarter-final stage. The Sky Blues failed to register a shot on target over 90 minutes at St Mary’s and Pep Guardiola made an alarming claim after the defeat.
As reported by City’s official website, Guardiola said post-match: “When you have this type of situation you have a big, big problem to point and say we didn’t fight or we didn’t run.
“It is not about that – it’s because we were not prepared to play in this competition, to get to the semi-finals again. We were not ready. You have to be prepared for every single game when you play for Manchester City, so we were not.”
Guardiola made a handful of changes from the side that thrashed Chelsea in the FA Cup on Sunday, January 8, starting Joao Cancelo at right-back over Manuel Akanji, starting Kalvin Phillips in midfield over Rodri and starting Jack Grealish on the left-flank over Riyad Mahrez. He ended up subbing Phillips and Grealish early into the second half due to their poor performances, however.
For Guardiola to claim City weren’t ready for a cup game is worrying for a side that have won the competition six times in the last nine years. Pep has learned he can’t trust all his fringe players and might be worried about City’s form ahead of Saturday’s trip to face Manchester United.
Guardiola’s men come into the Manchester derby off the back of one draw and one defeat from their last four games in all competitions, so they’re looking more human of late.
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