Man City boss Pep Guardiola apologises over his penalty decision vs Liverpool

Pep Guardiola has apologised to Gabriel Jesus after denying him the chance to take the penalty that Riyad Mahrez fired over the bar. 

Mahrez’s penalty miss was his fifth spot-kick miss out of his last eight attempts and spurned a great chance for City to pull clear of Liverpool at the top of the league with a first Anfield win since 2003.

But even with that poor record, and Gabriel Jesus’ insistence on taking the penalty himself, Guardiola has revealed that it was his decision to put City’s record signing on penalty-taking duties with Sergio Aguero already substituted off.

The City manager, who passed on his instruction via Benjamin Mendy, said (via the Guardian): “During the training sessions every day I see Mahrez taking the penalties and it gave me a lot of confidence. It will be good experience for him, next time it will go in. Jesus wanted to [take it]. I apologise. It was my decision.”

In a somewhat dull affair between two of the Premier League’s leading lights, the main talking point revolved around penalty decisions, with Liverpool coming close to conceding a further two – one in the first half via Dejan Lovren and one in the second for a handball by Virgil van Dijk.

“Normally for the last six, seven months the penalties were always Sergio’s but he was on the bench. He was on the pitch when the first penalty was not given,” the City manager said. “Maybe we need two penalties to score one goal. I would not like to speak about the referees, about the decisions. We should talk about the game, the football.

Liverpool 0-0 Manchester City FT:

Shots: 7-6
Possession: 49.4%-50.6%
Chances created: 6-4
Passing accuracy: 83%-83%

Liverpool and City cancel each other out at Anfield, but Pep Guardiola’s side miss the chance to win after Riyad Mahrez missed a late penalty. pic.twitter.com/vsCMdaLz8b

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“I am comfortable with the performance. They didn’t have one shot on target. Doing that at Anfield, that is so complicated. That is why I have so much credit for what we have done. OK, we miss a bit in front, a little more creativity and pace to finish the action, but it is not easy because [Liverpool] are so strong.

“We cannot forget against which team we compete and we made that performance. We controlled much better than in the past, and with the second balls, on which they are masters. Don’t lose the ball in dangerous positions because when you lose the ball there they counterattack with [Roberto] Firmino, [Sadio] Mané and [Mohamed] Salah. That’s why we controlled it so good today.”

The 0-0 draw means that Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea are all tied on 20 points at the top of the Premier League after eight games.

City’s next game is at home to Burnley after the international break.

 

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