Guardiola admits Man City ‘lacked urgency’ as Norwich stun the Premier League champions | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has said that Man City lacked urgency in the final third as his side fell to a shock 3-2 loss against Premier League newcomers Norwich.

As usual, Man City went into the game as overwhelming favourites to notch up yet another win, but with less than than 30 minutes played, they found themselves 2-0 down to the recently promoted Canaries.

The reigning Premier League champions pulled one back on the stroke of half-time through Sergio Aguero, a goal which many thought would be the start of a second-half turnaround, though Daniel Farke’s men had other ideas, running out 3-2 winners at an absolutely rocking Carrow Road.

The defeat sees Man City fall five points behind early league leaders Liverpool after just five games, and speaking to BBC Sport after the game, Pep Guardiola admitted his side lacked a clinical edge in front of goal,

“Congrats to Norwich,” said the former Barcelona boss. “The first goal was from a set-piece and the second on the counter so credit to them. It is what it is. We have to learn from this and carry on.

“Our passing was not bad. We created chances but we could not score them today. They are a really good team with good players with quality, we saw that in the Championship last year, they were clinical today.

“We did not have urgency in the final third that we normally have. In football you can’t always avoid mistakes. I don’t know how many shots we had or how many they had, but football is about goals and about what you do in the boxes.”

Norwich’s third goal came from an almighty brainfart from Nicolas Otamendi, who dallied on the ball at the edge of his box, before being robbed by Emiliano Buendia, who teed up in-form Finn, Teemu Pukki, who scored his sixth league goal of the season.

However, with regular centre-back Aymeric Laporte set to be out for around six months with a knee injury, Guardiola didn’t seem too concerned about the partnership between John Stones and Otamendi.

“They play together a lot – they are the central defenders that we have. It happens,” he told Sky Sports.

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