Pep Guardiola said his team \u201cforgot to play\u201d after they gave up a lead to lose 2-1 at Brighton. It was Manchester City\u2019s second defeat of the season, the first time they have lost two of their first three league games in 21 years.<\/p>\n
City had taken the lead through Erling Haaland and seemed to have the game under control when the Brighton manager, Fabian H\u00fcrzeler, made a quadruple substitution after an hour and levelled from a James Milner penalty seven minutes later.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played brilliantly the first hour but conceded a goal and then forgot to continue playing,\u201d said Guardiola. \u201cWe decided to play long but we were not good enough. Sometimes the momentum changes the shapes. I used to be a player. I understand this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the collapse, Guardiola had seen positive signs. \u201cI had the feeling we are more active compared to last season,\u201d he said, \u201cbut last season we lost to Spurs and Brighton and this season it happened again. It\u2019s difficult at the start of the season, but we have to find a way to win games.\u201d He also confirmed Rayan Cherki is likely to be out for two months with a thigh injury.<\/p>\n
Brajan Gruda claimed Brighton\u2019s winner in the 89th minute. \u201cAt that moment, we were tired.\u201d Guardiola said, pointing out that if Abdukodir Khusanov had not gone off injured four minutes earlier, his pace might have covered the gap that undid City.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are missing the level,\u201d said Rodri, after his first league start in almost a year. \u201cIt is a matter of the team and the changes, new players have to adapt and, of course, when you change the team that much it is difficult. But some of the mistakes we are making are kids\u2019 mistakes, not concentrating and paying attention. The reality is that we have to raise the level if we want to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n
H\u00fcrzeler spoke of \u201ca feeling that comes from inside\u201d as having guided his substitutions. \u201cIn some moments my body says something to me. Not just in football but generally in life you need to have the courage to take the decisions you want to if you feel they are the right thing to do. But with four subs you don\u2019t change the game,\u201d he said. \u201cYou need 11 players who are changed by the subs, by their energy and belief.\u201d<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Football Daily<\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n He also paid tribute to Milner who, at 39, came off the bench to score the equaliser from the penalty spot. \u201cHe always has the belief no matter against whom you are playing, and if you have these believers in your crew, it\u2019s like a positive virus that transports this to your teammates and the crowd. One has the spark and the spark becomes like a fire.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola said his team \u201cforgot to play\u201d after they gave up a lead to lose 2-1 at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-388240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115126476685477640","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}