‘If you don’t win, people want to destroy everything’ – Pep Guardiola responds to his critics after Man City win

Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, has responded to his critics after his team’s 3-0 win over Marseille on Tuesday night, October 27.

Guardiola has faced criticism as Manchester City has experienced a poor start to the 2020-21 season and are in 13th place in the Premier League after  two wins, two draws and a 5-2 defeat to Leicester City. 

But in the Champions League the club has secured two wins, a 3-1 win over Porto followed by Tuesday night’s 3-0 victory at Marseille taking them to top of Group C. 

The Spanish coach says he understands why his side have been under fire as this is his worst ever start to a league season as a head coach.

“We have to accept the criticism,” Guardiola told BT Sport. 

“We play every three days, when you win it’s good but if you don’t people want to destroy everything.

“But it’s about the chairman and everyone else understanding. Part of the criticism was right, but you’ve got to accept it. It’s part of our job.

“It’s about where we’ve come from in the last month, with lack of preparation, injuries and Covid-19 but the Champions League is in a good place now. I’m sure we’re going to find that consistency.”

“We played really well, we didn’t concede much and we were in control, patient and aggressive without the ball,” Guardiola added. “I’m so satisfied with the performance and result, it’s always difficult to win away.

“We can play on both sides, we tried to play high and wide to stretch the pitch. Raheem Sterling was exceptional, Phil [Foden] as well. We didn’t expect them to play five at the back until we saw the team. Porto was the same. As much as we play against five at the back we started to take the control and rhythm.

“We were so stable defensively. Aymeric [Laporte] was good, Kyle [Walker] is in the best form since we’ve been together, Oleksandr [Zinchenko] helped us, John [Stones] played good minutes. I’m so satisfied with the way we played.”