Pundit blasts ‘abject’ Man City and claims Brighton performance was 'worst he’s seen under Guardiola’

Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp slammed Manchester City following their 2-1 loss to Brighton & Hove Albion and claimed the performance in the second period was among the worst he’s seen under Pep Guardiola.

City had led 1-0 at the break thanks to an excellent goal from Erling Haaland, and Brighton didn’t manage a shot until the 35th minute. However, a spirited second-half from Fabian Hurzeler’s side saw them score two and subject City to a fourth successive defeat in all competitions.

It’s an alarming run that has seen a patched-up City side lose back-to-back matches in the league and fall five points behind leaders Liverpool. The Brighton performance also followed on from the midweek defeat by Sporting Lisbon, with City surrendering half-time leads in both games.

“I thought second half, and I’ve watched a lot of Manchester City, I’ve admired his team for so long. but that’s one of the worst halves of football I’ve seen from a Pep Guardiola side,” opined Redknapp during Sky Sports’ post-match analysis.

“They were abject, they didn’t defend, they didn't win individual battles, they didn’t pass the ball forwards. First half, they were excellent, they should’ve been 3-0 up.

“The second half when he [Hurzeler] made the subs, there was only one team going to win it. Once the game starts to run away from you, you’re looking at characters.

‘Who is going to dig in? Who is going to get on the ball when you need them most? Who is going to make this team calm? There was nobody to do it.”

Guardiola admitted post-match that City are struggling to maintain their levels over 90 minutes at present amid a crippling injury outbreak. Six players were missing against Brighton, while Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake were unused substitutes due to knocks. Kyle Walker and Kevin De Bruyne also aren’t playing at full capacity yet, and City’s small squad is being pushed to its limits.

“The two centre backs, [Josko] Gvardiol and [Jahmai] Simpson-Pusey, it was very difficult; they’re not a regular partnership and you could see it,” Redknapp added on City’s team selection. “They looked like a bunch of strangers. The goals summed it up, they were really poor from Manchester City’s point of view.

“It is fixable but it’s going to be the same. It might sound completely boring, but when Rodri doesn’t play you can see the impact he has. There’s no way they lose those three games if Rodri plays. But he can’t play and he’s out for the rest of the season - how do you manage it?”

City will hope the squad is in better health when they return to action in two weeks’ time against Tottenham Hotspur. At the very least, they’ll need to raise their performance levels if the champions are to compete with leaders Liverpool.

“Now they need to show some character. In a lot of the games they’ve played well but ended up throwing it away. They can’t carry on the way they are,” said Redknapp.

“They are still going to be in contention because of the quality they have but this is one of the most difficult times they’ve had. I can’t think of a more difficult time for Pep in the Premier League.”