Guardiola: Bad decision-making blamed for City's late collapse

Pep Guardiola said Manchester City's lack of care with the ball was the reason for his team's late collapse from 2-0 up to draw 2-2 at Brentford on Tuesday.

Phil Foden's double put the English champion on course for a fourth consecutive win after a miserable run of one victory in 13 games.

But defensive deficiencies and struggles to hold onto leads have been a consistent theme in a difficult season for Guardiola's men.

Brentford created chances throughout the game and took them in the final 10 minutes through Yoane Wissa and Christian Norgaard to hit back for a deserved point.

"Long balls we won and we could run and in that moment we didn't take the right decisions," said Guardiola.

"Maybe that would have been different but at the same time they had chances. Their strikers are really good, Wissa and (Bryan) Mbeumo are really dangerous."

City was again without injured centerbacks Ruben Dias and John Stones, while captain Kyle Walker was not included in Guardiola's squad after expressing his desire to leave the club this month.

"At 2-0 we have to close it but we don't have those specific players to defend in the box so we have to do it by controlling the ball," added Guardiola.

"The fatigue against Brentford in the last 15 minutes is normal. I don't have anything to regret. Recover and go to the next game."

Guardiola said that with several key players missing through injury, City didn't have the personnel to defend the type of balls it faced against Brentford.

"We have another type of player right now, and at the end we could not defend that situation," Guardiola told a media conference.

"They put six, seven players in the box, crosses, and sometimes they are better, so there are more players, they are taller, they are stronger in (heading)," he added.

Agencies