Sports
Guardiola Warns Manchester City Must Adapt to Avoid Champions League Exclusion

- Guardiola admits teams are adapting to City’s style, pressing them more.
- City currently fifth in Premier League, struggling to qualify for Champions League.
- Guardiola emphasizes the need for better ball movement to improve results.
Pep Guardiola acknowledged that teams are now approaching Manchester City in a way they didn’t before, and if he doesn’t adapt, it could cost them a Champions League spot.
While he didn’t claim that City had entirely lost their ‘fear factor,’ Guardiola pointed out that opponents are pressing his side much more.
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He recalled how teams used to sit back at the Etihad, with Cardiff’s Neil Warnock being the first to employ man-marking tactics. Now, nearly every team employs similar strategies, even pressing goalkeepers Ederson and Stefan Ortega.
Guardiola emphasized the need for his team to adapt and improve their ball control to qualify for the Champions League.
City are currently fifth in the Premier League, 12 points behind leaders Liverpool, and have been struggling, having won only one of their last 13 matches.
Their defeat by Paris Saint-Germain leaves them needing to beat Club Brugge to secure a Champions League play-off spot.
Despite having £123m worth of new talent at his disposal, Guardiola downplayed the importance of running statistics as a measure of performance, stressing that his team’s issue lies in poor ball usage.
He cited a lack of proper passing, which has made games more difficult.
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Looking ahead to their match with Chelsea, Guardiola noted that qualification for next season’s Champions League would feel like a major achievement, considering the injuries to key players like Rodri.
With only one fit central defender available for the weekend, excluding new signings Vitor Reis and Abdukodir Khusanov, Guardiola also referenced Jose Mourinho’s claim about the significance of finishing second behind City with Manchester United in the 2017-18 season.
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