talkSPORT’s Troy Deeney offered an alternative explanation to Kyle Walker’s for Manchester City’s shock defeat against Bournemouth.
City were beaten for the first time in the Premier League this season as the Cherries ran out 2-1 winners on Saturday afternoon.
Pep Guardiola’s side have lost their last two games in all competitions as they were also defeated 2-1 by Tottenham in the Carabao Cup during the week.
Speaking to talkSPORT afterwards, Walker was asked about why they didn’t show the necessary intensity for the whole match rather than the last ten minutes in which they scored.
“Tiredness could be a big part of it from playing the intense game that we did the other night [against Spurs],” he said.
MORE ON THE PREMIER LEAGUE
“To then travelling to London, travelling down here, short recovery, short training sessions, a few niggles here and there, people coming back that haven’t been coming back but it’s not an excuse.
“We’re not making excuses, we deal with what we’ve been given and that’s just the way that the cookie crumbles, we’re not making this an excuse, we know we could’ve done better, we should’ve done better but full credit to Bournemouth.”
However, whilst Deeney could see where the City captain was coming from, he believes their mentality was the issue rather than tiredness.
“I can understand it, I can take it for what it is. I don’t think that is the case, because Erling Haaland was really poor today, he didn’t play [against Spurs], he was laughing and joking on the bench,” Deeney said immediately after Walker’s interview was aired.
“It seemed to me more than the tiredness, it was more of a mentality [issue]. Now listen, we can’t crucify them, they’ve lost one game, they are Man City, they will come again and they will be really good.
“But I just think in this singular game, they were poor and mentally, Bournemouth wanted it from the start of the game. They thought they were going to turn up, be Man City, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, and then they would score.
“Unfortunately for them, Bournemouth had better ideas and it was a much… he says they caught them on the counter-attack.
4
4
“They caught them about 16 times on the counter-attack, they should’ve been four or five up. So, I get where he’s coming from and I don’t disagree with everything.”
City boss Guardiola also spoke to talkSPORT moments later and gave his reasoning for the defeat, saying: “We couldn’t match the intensity they put in the game.
“Obviously they are such a strong team, physicality, good plan. They beat Arsenal, Aston Villa they drew to so… Our build-up was not good, it was not fluid but at the end you have to accept it and learn from this.”
When asked if, as Walker suggested, it would’ve been a different story had City shown the same intensity in the first 80 minutes as they did in the last ten, Guardiola replied: “Yeah definitely.
“But with their opening, maybe it’s not possible. Football is an emotion in the moment, we score the first goal, we have nothing to lose and they are little more scared.
“You know, these kind of things happen. Normally we are really good in that but a lot of games, sometimes the [other] team is better.”
Guardiola later added: “They had seven days to recover [from their last game] and we had just two days to recover. In the situation that we are in right now, we are struggling about that.”
4
City’s defeat meant they squandered the chance to go eight points clear of Premier League title rivals Arsenal, who lost 1-0 to Newcastle earlier on Saturday.
Instead, it was Liverpool who capitalised on the Gunners’ loss as they came from behind to beat Brighton 2-1 and go top of the table.
They are two points ahead of City after ten games of the season and six in front of Arsenal.
