Pep Guardiola claims Man City players ‘have to improve’ after ‘anxious’ moments v RB Leipzig

Pep Guardiola has warned his Manchester City players that they must cut out the defensive errors that have emerged in recent weeks.

The European champions ensured they took top spot in their Champions League group courtesy of a 3-2 win over RB Leipzig on Tuesday, with City overturning a two-goal deficit at half-time. But conceding sloppy goals has been a common theme across the Champions League this term, and Guardiola’s side have been punished on the break on five occasions in the group stages.

Lois Openda scored twice from counters on Tuesday in what was a poor night at the back for City, with Manuel Akanji and Ruben Dias being easily bypassed for the two goals, while the latter could have been shown a second booking before half-time, and was subsequently replaced at half-time.

Speaking after the match, Guardiola said City need to address these problems, admitting they didn’t happen last season, before claiming his players looked anxious’ on Tuesday. “It is not normal to concede four goals in the way we did against Chelsea, and today. 

“It didn’t happen last season, that is the truth. We talk about it, it’s football, it happens. Human beings, it happens and the opponents play too, but we have to improve because not all the times you can come back there.

“Sometimes I have the feeling the players are so anxious. The first yellow card from Ruben is not necessary to put the feet here. This kind of action - oh, what happened? So, control the ball and if you don’t win the duel… but you are there and you have to avoid that. You have to get better. Today we were lucky.

“When you have long balls you have to win the duels, you have to be strong there and we were not. We made individual mistakes and individually we were sloppy, and at that level there is no chance. 

“Maybe for the future it is good to win in that game, not comfortably, to realise, look in the mirror and say we must do better,” he added, before claiming the Leipzig win and draw with Chelsea were ‘warnings’ for his side.

As well as conceding five goals across five Champions League matches, City also have managed just four clean sheets from 13 league games this season.