Olaleye Idowu
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has blamed himself for his team’s shock home defeat to Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Going into the game, Guardiola made ten changes to the team that lost 2-0 to Newcastle United in the Champions League on Saturday.
He dropped the likes of Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku, Phil Foden, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Ruben Dias on the bench.
His tactics did not work as Alejandro Grimaldo and Patrick Schick scored in either half to secure Leverkusen a win at the Etihad Stadium.
He later introduced Haaland, Foden, Doku and Rayan Cherki, but it was too late as the German team left England with a clean sheet.
“I understand. I understand your question. Absolutely, I have to accept it. I have to accept,” Guardiola told TNT Sports when asked about his team selection.
“If we win, it would not be a problem. I accept maybe it’s a lot, but playing every two, three, four days… But maybe it’s too much, you’re right. Seeing the result, maybe it’s too much.
“It was not the performance we thought,’ he said. ‘Maybe I’ll take full responsibility, I still think the players that started are exceptional.
“But we missed something we needed at the highest level. It was an incredible opportunity, now we have to fight in the next games.
“They [Leverkusen] were good. In general, we also did some very good things, we had chances, half chances; always blocked, always we slipped, always it was something.
“We didn’t believe, ‘OK, it’s the moment to attack, we attack’ or ‘OK, it’s the moment to defend, we defend’. It’s not being in the position, it’s being present defensively and offensively, we have to have the determination, ‘OK, I’m going to make a move, make some situations that we can do’ Sometimes it happens.”
