Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola gave a scathing assessment of his side’s performance after they crashed out of the Premier League in a heavy 2-0 defeat to Southampton on Wednesday.
The competition has long been an area where City have dominated, having won the Cup six times since 2014, but for the second time in as many seasons, they have been knocked out before the finals.
– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (USA)
For only the third time in Pep Guardiola’s tenure as City boss, and the first time since 2018, his side didn’t even manage a shot on target.
“That’s why we’re not good,” he told Sky Sports when asked about that statistic.
Southampton struck twice before the half-hour mark and defended well to limit City’s chances going forward despite having 28% of the possession.
Guardiola was clear in his analysis of his team’s performance, telling BBC Radio 5 Live: “The best team wins.” won and we didn’t.
“When you’re not ready to play this game you’re an inch late and you don’t score a goal. When you’re ready you score the goal.
“Today was a bad night, the opponent was better so we have to congratulate them. To win games you have to deserve it and tonight we didn’t.”
Guardiola named a strong side with Joao Cancelo, Jack Grealish, Ilkay Gundogan and Kalvin Phillips among the starters, however apart from an early shot that went wide by midfielder Gundogan they paid little attention to the game.
Guardiola’s feelings were echoed by Gundogan, who was disappointed with his team’s performance.
“It’s definitely not what we wanted,” the German told Sky Sports.
“We hope to go through the Carabao Cup but with that [performance] there is no interest. Not enough from us.
“With the ball we made a lot of mistakes, lost a lot of runs, gave them the ball too easily and that led to two goals.
“Today we were not good enough to create opportunities, not good enough to score a goal. A combination of work from the whole team for this result.”
City will need to improve on Saturday for their next game, the Premier League derby away to neighbors Manchester United, who have won their last eight competitive games.
