Pep Guardiola urged his players to take more risks ahead of Manchester City’s English Premier League (EPL) clash against Leeds United on Saturday.
The Sky Blues enter this game on the back of two losses within the span of a week, first to Newcastle in the league then to Bayer Levekusen in a mid-week UEFA Champions League fixture. While Guardiola was relatively unflustered by the former 1-2 defeat, the latter 0-2 loss irked him because he felt his team played it too safe, instead of taking the attack to the opposition.
“In football, you have to try things and we didn’t try [vs Leverkusen]. I think we played to not make mistakes, not to do something, and it’s is so difficult [to win with that mentality],” said the Spaniard, before adding, “I have a lot of confidence in them, maybe it is higher than what they think of themselves.”
City — currently in second place with 22 points — trail league leaders Arsenal by seven points. The bulk of the damage for them has been unsurprisingly done by Erling Haaland, who leads the scoring chart with 14 goals. When asked if the over-reliance on the Norwegian marksman was a concern, Guardiola responded: “It’s not the main concern. Of course Haaland is massively important, but others are as well,” hinting he wants the rest of his squad to raise their standards.
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