Pep: Be more ruthless

Guardiola wants City to show killer instinct

PEP GUARDIOLA acknowledged Manchester City need to develop a more ruthless instinct after they were held to a frustrating 1-1 draw by Middlesbrough.

Guardiola’s side made a major statement on the European stage when they beat Barcelona 3-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday.

But four days later City looked increasingly lethargic after an impressive first half at Eastlands.

Sergio Aguero’s (caricature) 150th City goal gave Guardiola’s men the lead at halftime, but the Argentina international missed two good second half chances to add to that tally.

City winger Kevin De Bruyne also put the ball over an unguarded net and the hosts were made to pay for their profligacy in the first minute of stoppage-time when Marten De Roon headed in his first Middlesbrough goal from George Friend’s cross.

“We need to improve in both boxes, both offensive and defensive, to score goals and not concede,” Guardiola said.

“In the second half, we didn’t play like the first one but I think they had one chance at the beginning of the second half, and another in the last minute.

“Maybe in the last minutes, the team can be tired. If we scored the second goal, the chance for Sergio, the game was over. In the last minutes, anything can happen.”

The result means that, for the third successive league match, City have drawn 1-1 after dominating, having suffered the same fate against Everton and Southampton.

“When you see all three games, we dropped six points, but they arrived maybe four or five times in our box,” said Guardiola, whose side have surrendered top spot in the Premier League to Chelsea.

“We attacked really well and controlled the counter-attacks and we created enough chances, more than enough to win the game.

“But when you arrive in the last minutes, and it is just 1-0, everything can happen.”

Middlesbrough manager Aitor Karanka commended the performance of goalkeeper Victor Valdes, who made a series of saves in the first half to frustrate City.

Valdes, who won two of his three Champions League titles at Barcelona when Guardiola was their manager, was inspired on h i s first return to a city he left when he Preston 16 7 Brentford 16 6 Barnsley 16 6 Aston Villa 16 4 Ipswich 16 5 Derby 16 5 QPR 16 5 Burton 16 4 Wolves 16 4 Nottm Forest 16 4 Cardiff 16 4 Wigan 16 3 Blackburn 16 3 Rotherham 16 1

LA LIGA:

(Tyton 81-og) (Andone 64), Willian Jose 75-pen)

(Santos 77-pen), (Viera 90+4-pen) (Fornals 45+2, Sandro Ramirez 65, Michael Santos 77)

(Viguera 13, Cop 49). PWD F A Pts 10 7 3 28 10 24 10 7 1 30 12 22 11 6 3 25 8 21 10 6 3 18 13 21 10 5 4 17 7 19 11 6 1 18 12 19 11 4 4 21 18 16 10 5 1 15 13 16 11 4 3 17 16 15 11 4 3 16 15 15 10 4 2 16 20 14 11 3 4 11 15 13 10 2 5 13 17 11 10 3 2 11 20 11 10 3 1 14 19 10 11 2 4 8 16 10 10 3 1 9 19 10 11 2 3 10 22 9 11 1 4 12 21 7 11 0 4 9 25 4 Real Madrid Barcelona Atletico Sevilla Villarreal Sociedad Las Palmas Bilbao Malaga Eibar Celta Vigo Alaves Espanyol Real Betis Valencia Deportivo Leganes Gijon Osasuna Granada 2 7 22 20 23 4 6 21 16 22 3 7 27 24 21 9 3 17 16 21 6 5 14 15 21 5 6 12 13 20 5 6 17 22 20 6 6 18 20 18 5 7 19 21 17 4 8 25 30 16 3 9 14 25 15 5 8 14 19 14 4 9 16 25 13 4 11 17 38 7

L0 2 2 1 1 4 3 4 4 4 4 4 3 5 6 5 6 6 6 7 (Vela 54-pen,

SERIE A: Pescara 0 Empoli 4, Chievo 1 Juventus 2, Genoa 1 Udinese 1, Palermo 1 Milan 2, Sassuolo 0 Atalanta 3, Torino 5 Cagliari 1, Napoli 1 Lazio 1. PWD 12 10 0 12 8 1 11 7 2 12 6 4 12 7 1 12 6 3 Juventus AC Milan Roma Lazio Atalanta Napoli

L2 3 2 2 4 3 FA Pts 23 9 30 19 15 25 26 12 23 22 13 22 19 13 22 21 13 21 departed Manchester United at the end of last season. The 34-year-old’s performance ensured Middlesbrough extended their unbeaten run to three matches, having drawn at Arsenal two weeks ago before last Saturday’s home win over Bournemouth. “Victor is really important and I am really pleased for him because his first games were really good and as a keeper you need a lot of confidence,” Karanka said. “I tried to transmit my confidence to him and he is showing how good he is. He is a leader in the dressing room, he is really good and he is going to help us a lot. “Today, Victor made three amazing saves. Against Arsenal and Bournemouth, he made two or three. “I know when I signed him, he was not the same keeper he was at Barcelona because if he had been at that level, he would not have been here. “He is with us because he had problems in the past (with injury) but the main thing for me is to keep him happy. He is an amazing keeper.” – AFP

Torino Fiorentina Genoa Cagliari Chievo Udinese Inter Milan Sampdoria Bologna Sassuolo Empoli Pescara Palermo Crotone

12 5 10 4 11 4 12 5 12 4 12 4 11 4 11 4 11 3 12 4 12 2 12 1 12 1 11 1

4 4 4 1 3 3 2 2 4 1 4 4 3 2

3 2 3 6 5 5 5 5 4 7 6 7 8 8

27 16 19 13 10 16 13 11 16 20 29 16 12 14 15 16 19 15 13 14 14 12 16 14 11 15 13 14 22 13 6 13 10 9 20 7 9 23 6 10 21 5

BUNDESLIGA: (Werner 3, 44, Forsberg 21) (Bell 74), (Zuber 34-og) (Demirbay 16), (Calhanoglu 32, Brandt 56, Aranguiz 69) (Colak 47, Vrancic 85), (N Mueller 55, 81) (Aubameyang 4, 23, 27, 48, (Boba- Dembele 76), dilla 86, Altintop 90), (Gomez 41, 53, Rodriguez 86), (Gacinovic 5) 33, 84)

PWD Bayern 10 7 3 RB Leipzig 10 7 3 Hoffenheim 10 5 5 Hertha Berlin 10 6 2 Dortmund 10 5 3 Cologne 10 5 3 Frankfurt 10 5 3 Leverkusen 10 5 1 Freiburg 10 5 0 Mainz 10 4 2 M’gladbach 10 3 3 Augsburg 10 3 2 Wolfsburg 10 2 3 Schalke 04 9 2 2 Darmstadt 10 2 2 Bremen 9 2 1 Ingolstadt 04 10 0 2 Hamburg 10 0 2

L0 0 0 2 2 2 2 4 5 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 8 8

(Kalou 18,

F A Pts 24 6 24 20 7 24 18 11 20 17 10 20 25 12 18 16 7 18 14 8 18 16 15 16 13 16 15 17 18 14 10 15 12 10 14 11 9 13 9 10 11 8 10 20 8 11 24 7 7 21 2 4 23 2

LIGUE 1: Caen 1 Nice 0, Monaco 6 Nancy 0, Angers 1 Lille 0, Bordeaux 2 Lorient 1, Dijon 3 Guingamp 3, Lyon 2 Bastia 1, Nantes 1 Toulouse 1, Montpellier 3 Marseille 1.

SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP: Celtic 3 Inverness CT 0, Dundee 2 Motherwell 0, Hearts 2 St Johnstone 2, Kilmarnock 0 Hamilton 0, Partick 1 Aberdeen 2.