Manchester City Manager Pep Guardiola gave a scathing assessment of his side’s performance after their disappointing exit from the League Cup. 2-0 loss of Southampton Wednesday.
The competition has long been dominated by City, who have won the cup six times since 2014, but were knocked out before the semi-finals for the second time in as many seasons.
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For just the third time in Pep Guardiola’s tenure as City boss, and the first time since 2018, his side failed to even manage a shot on target.
“That’s the reason we’re not good,” he told Sky Sports when asked about that statistic.
Southampton struck twice before the half-hour mark and defended well to limit City’s chances going forward despite only having 28% possession.
Analyzing his side’s performance, Guardiola pointedly told BBC Radio 5 Live: “The better team won. We didn’t play well, we didn’t play well at the start. There are a lot of games you can’t do well and won and we didn’t.
“When you’re not ready to play this game, you’re an inch late and you don’t score. When you’re ready, you score.
“Tonight was bad, the opposition was good so we have to congratulate them. To win a game you have to deserve it and we didn’t deserve it tonight.”
Guardiola named a strong side Joao Cancelo, Jack Grealish, Ilke Gundogan and Calvin Phillips Between the starts, but apart from an early shot that midfielder Gundogan dragged wide, they had little impact on the game.
Guardiola’s sentiments were echoed by Gundogan, who was disappointed with his side’s performance.
“It’s definitely not what we wanted,” the German told Sky Sports.
“We were hoping to get to the Carabao Cup but with that [performance] There was no chance. It didn’t reach us.
“With the ball we made too many mistakes, missed too many passes, gave them the ball too easily and it led to two goals.
“Today we weren’t good enough to create chances, not good enough to score goals. The combination of performances from all the teams led to this result.”
City will have to improve in their next game, a Premier League derby away to their neighbors on Saturday Manchester Unitedwho have won their last eight competitive matches.
