Manchester City, according to Pep Guardiola, “do not have a chance” against Manchester United if they repeat their performance from the loss at Southampton.
City were eliminated from the Carabao Cup after losing 2-0 against Southampton, failing to register a single shot on goal for the first time since April 2018.
Guardiola was harsh in his evaluation of his squad after the game, warning that if they do not make substantial adjustments, they will suffer another loss in the derby this weekend.
“The best team won,” City manager Pep Guardiola told reporters.
They were superior.
We didn’t perform well.
We had a poor start and did not perform well.
Today was nowhere near what we are now.
We were not prepared to compete in this competition in order to go to the semi-finals.We weren’t prepared.
“You have to be prepared for every single game when you play for Manchester City and today we were not. If we perform this way (in the Manchester derby) we do not have a chance. I have the feeling today the line-up doesn’t matter, the performance happens. We were not here.”
Sergio Gomez’s individual error and Stefan Ortega’s poor positioning led to City’s two goals on a sad night at St Mary’s.
Guardiola chose to keep the big guns on the bench at first, but in a desperate attempt to turn the game around, he introduced Kevin De Bruyne, Nathan Ake, and Manuel Akanji before halftime, followed by Erling Haaland and Rodri in the second half.
However, it was unable to compensate for their poor start, which saw them go behind by two goals within the first 30 minutes.
