📣 Guardiola passionately hits back at mentality criticitsm | OneFootball

Impassioned Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola came to the defence of his players strongly in the wake of their Champions League exit in midweek.

Speaking on Friday afternoon ahead of their clash with Newcastle, the Spaniard was quick to hit back at suggestions that a mentality issue was to blame for the late collapse at Real Madrid.

“We recover, we’re better than yesterday and tomorrow will be better than today. It’s football. We have a big challenging two weeks, especially this week where we have the season in our hands,” he told the assembled media.

“No words can help to feel what we feel. Just time, sleep as best as possible, think of the next target. Tomorrow is the next day we’re together, we’ll talk who we are as a team, what we’ve done to get to semi-finals of the Champions League, how good we have been. Of the moments I’m manager these are the moments I’m most proud.

“I’m not thinking about the Premier League title, I’m thinking about Newcastle and Eddie Howe. After, this is what is in my mind.”

Expanding further, Guardiola had a lot to say in a lengthy monologue about a lack of character or whether there were any greater narratives to be read into regarding the defeat.

“I don’t know if we can win the Champions League in the future. The investment from our owners was not just to win the Champions League, but it is to be where we are; competing. It’s remarkable to me where we are, I’m proud,” he continued.

“We were close. Not close enough because the team who wins deserves it. Madrid is in the Champions League final and they deserve it. We were not close enough but we were there.

“The people say that if this group of Man City players or this manager doesn’t win the Champions League then they are a failure. I disagree, I completely disagree.

“There is no time for [it to be] mental. It was 45 seconds. There is no time to fall. That’s why when we speak about analysis and data, how does that control how players feel in that moment?

“What is analysis? How can you measure how players react in a moment? It’s football, it happens. People say it’s a lack of character. What if [Jack] Grealish scores, then it’s not a lack of character. We play with emotions.

“I never blame the team, always we can do better. Next season, if we are here and together, that is what we have to do.

“In the Premier League, you have another game. In the Champions League, it happens in an instant. The players don’t need to forget. They need to be committed, I have no doubts. Real [Madrid] had belief because they’ve done it. Momentum and tension play a part.”