Pep enjoys a calm stroll on coast
PEP GUARDIOLA believes there is more pressure in La Liga and the Bundesliga than in the Premier League.
While many believe he has struggled to come to grips with the competitiveness of the English top flight after success with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, Guardiola claims it is less stressful.
“Here I miss a little bit the pressure,” he said after City’s stroll at St Mary’s, sealed with goals from Vincent Kompany, Leroy Sane and Sergio Aguero.
“In Spain, and especially in Germany, the pressure is higher on the players, on the manager. Here it is calm. The fans are always perfect. I love them. But sometimes when you realise that you must not lose, you feel real pressure, you are so criticised and you have to create something so that the players believe they cannot lose, to put something in their heads.
“If you want to become stronger, you cannot drop points. The difference is mentality, not quality. We went out of the Champions League in Monaco, we played Liverpool and Arsenal and didn’t win but our supporters still helped us against Hull.”
But if Guardiola is suggesting supporters should be harder on his men, perhaps he misunderstood their ironic cheers for a straightforward save from a Maya Yoshida header made by Claudio Bravo, preferred in goal to Willy Caballero, with England’s Joe Hart still out on loan in Italy.
The Chilean had let in the previous seven on-target efforts he had faced and he was uninspiring once more, despite this clean sheet. “I have two fantastic guys and two fantastic goalkeepers,” said Guardiola. Saints face Chelsea next and will have to do better than this.
“Against good sides like City you get punished on the counter-attack and that’s what happened to us today,” said defender Jack Stephens.