Pep Guardiola has admitted he made mistakes in selection after watching his Manchester City side lose 2-0 to Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Champions League.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has taken responsibility for his team’s unexpected home defeat to Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
The defeat came after Guardiola made ten significant changes to the squad that lost 2-0 to Newcastle United days earlier. Key players like Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku, Phil Foden, Gianluigi Donnarumma, and Ruben Dias were all left on the bench.
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His tactical rotation failed to pay off, as goals from Alejandro Grimaldo and Patrick Schick sealed the win for Leverkusen at the Etihad Stadium. Although Guardiola later introduced Haaland, Foden, Doku, and Rayan Cherki, it was too late to reverse the clean-sheet victory for the German side.
When questioned about his team selection by TNT Sports, Guardiola accepted the blame:
“I understand. I understand your question. Absolutely, I have to accept it. I have to accept. 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.”
He stressed that the poor result was not the players’ fault, and he apologized for the scale of the rotation.
“It was not the performance we thought. Maybe I’ll take full responsibility; I still think the players who started are exceptional. However, we overlooked something crucial at the highest level. It was an incredible opportunity, now we have to fight in the next games.”
Guardiola concluded by reiterating his full acceptance of the outcome.
“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 there. maybe the changes were too much, i take full responsibility.”