Manchester City
Guardiola’s strange exchange with a journalist confuses everyone
The Manchester City manager was cryptic in his post-match interview with reporters.
It turns out that the win was not the return to form, but the blip itself, a brief light of hope in what is becoming a season to forget for Manchester City. Crystal Palace went ahead twice and fought for a valuable point against Guardiola’s all-conquering machine that appears clunky and, well, robotic to the point of prediction in the Premier League this season.
City’s poor run of form - 21 goals conceded across 6 defeats, 2 draws and 1 win in the last 9 games - was media food for as long as it went on, and a comprehensive 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest was seen as a step in the right direction, but the smiles didn’t last long as they stumbled in a rainy South London, drawing 2-2 against Crystal Palace.
After the game, Guardiola did not scratch his head to the point of bleeding, but there was some (okay, a lot) of confusion when he was asked about the red card to young midfielder Rico Lewis, who was sent for an early bath in the second half after a late challenge saw him awarded a second yellow.
What did Pep Guardiola say about Rico Lewis' red card?
Pep: “It’s because it’s Rico.”
Reporter: “Sorry?”
Pep: “It’s Rico.”
Reporter: “Sorry, I couldn’t understand you...”
Pep: “It’s because it’s Rico.”
Reporter: “It’s because it’s Rico Lewis you think he got the yellow card?”
Pep: “It’s a yellow card?”
Reporter: “No, I’m asking you; did you think it was a yellow card?”
Pep: “It’s Rico Lewis.”
Guardiola commends ‘unbelievable effort’
This exchange had reporters scratching their heads to the point of bleeding as they furiously tried to work out what Guardiola meant by it all, and it’s safe to say that nobody is any the wiser having stared at the words like Tracey Emin’s My Bed artwork.
When the conversation moved on, Guardiola decided that normal sentences were the best way to go: “How we played last 15, 16 minutes was 10 vs 11. We have seven potential starting XI injured... A lot of players with minutes, the physicality with Crystal Palace is there. We were there and we did everything to try to win. I am really proud and pleased for the players“, he admitted.
On the energy left in the legs of the players, he said that “the effort from Gundogan and Bernardo was unbelievable. Both wingers were really good. We need fresh legs in that position, Jeremy [Doku] comes from a long injury and played 90 minutes. Jack [Grealish] yesterday feels niggles, discomfort and comes from long injury.
“I had the feeling at 2-2 we were there. Unfortunately we could not finish with 11.”
This confusing conversation comes just days after Mourinho and Guardiola brought us all back to 2012 by having a back and forth, with the Portuguese manager saying "Pep said he won six Premier Leagues and I won three, but I won fairly and cleanly. If I lose, I want to congratulate my opponent because they are better than me. I don’t want to win with 150 lawsuits."
Guardiola responded by saying “if I have offended him, I’m so sorry. But it was a joke. The fact is he has three, I have six. This is a fact."
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