“I didn’t see this when I destroyed Man Utd” Guardiola Slaps Back At Evra & Berbatov. Pep Guardiola has slammed former Manchester United players Patrice Evra and Dimitar Berbatov for their comments about Manchester City following their Champions League loss at the hands of Real Madrid.
City were seconds away from reaching the Champions League final, but Rodrygo struck twice in injury time to force extra time, where Karim Benzema converted from the spot to send Real to the final in Paris.
Guardiola’s managerial approach has been questioned by Evra, who claims the Catalan does not want his players to think for themselves.
“Manchester City needs leaders, but Guardiola doesn’t want leaders,” the Frenchman said. “He doesn’t want personality. He’s the leader. That’s why when they’re in trouble they don’t want to. They don’t have anyone on the pitch to help them.
“He chooses his teams like that, he can’t train people with personality. He did it at Barcelona, but he builds his team to control everyone. When things go wrong, he always decides.”
Berbatov was also harsh, claiming that City exhibited the attitude of a little club by giving up a lead in the dying stages.
“If a small team, who don’t have that much talent and class concede two goals at the end of the game, we’ll say it’s because they are a small team with a small mindset and with no winning mentality,” Berbatov said.
“With it happening to a team like Man City, I don’t even know how to find the right words to explain how this team of all teams, with so many winners, can let in two goals after the 90 minutes in a Champions League semi-final.”
Guardiola took a jab at the criticism during his news conference ahead of the Premier League meeting with West Ham, saying they did not exhibit that type of fight on the pitch, citing Barcelona’s victory against Manchester United in 2009 and 2011 Champions League finals. Evra played the whole 90 minutes in both meetings, whereas Berbatov came off the bench in 2009 and was completely absent in 2010.
“The character is the same that we lost in Madrid in the last few minutes,” Guardiola said. “Specialist former players like Berbatov and (Clarence) Seedorf, Patrice they weren’t there. When I played against them I didn’t see this kind of personality when we [Barcelona] destroyed them in the Champions League final versus United.
“It’s the same character and personality.
“We don’t have personality because we concede two goals in two minutes but we had two chances to score and we don’t have personality. We have incredible personality. I’m sorry but I completely disagree about this.
“Personality is what we have done in the last five years, every three days. Maybe Liverpool wins all four titles, maybe they win just one, but you say they don’t have personality, (or) character, they didn’t do an incredible season?
🗣 "I didn't see when I played against them this kind of personality when we destroyed them." 😅
Pep Guardiola responds to the comments from Dimitar Berbatov and Patrice Evra on him being unable to manage "big characters" pic.twitter.com/5JD8tixgH7
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) May 13, 2022
“Even when they lost the Premier League by one or two points against us, they had a bad season? They don’t have character? Of course, they do.
“Sometimes football happens. You cannot control it, emotion, (and) many things.
“When we are constantly arriving in the latter stages, semi-finals, finals last four, five years. This is incredible because we arrive until the end, a lot of games, go through, this is the most important.”