Germany international admits Man City ‘suffered’ playing under Pep Guardiola’s style
Manchester City star midfielder Ilkay Gundogan has admitted that last season was a struggle under Pep Guardiola.
The former Borussia Dortmund star was Guardiola’s first signing after being appointed as City boss.
Gundogan made an instant impact for the Citizens however, his season was cut short by an injury. The 26-year-old suffered a knee injury in December and has been sidelined ever since.
During an interview with ESPN FC, Gundogan revealed his team-mates struggled to adapt to Guardiola’s style of play last season.
Furthermore, Gundogan stated that Guardiola also struggle to adapt to the Premier League.
The Germany international went onto say that he felt frustrated after losing games which his side had largely controlled.
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“Honestly, we suffered last season — everything was new for Pep, for the new players like me, maybe for the others as well to understand the idea of Pep’s style,” Gundogan told ESPN.
“The adaptation doesn’t come in a few weeks or just in one moment, but I think that the dominant football that we are playing is the right way.
“We controlled a lot of games last season in the Premier League, maybe 95 per cent of all the games we played.
“It felt a little bit unfair sometimes, to play the game [for] 90 minutes, to put a lot of effort into the game, to create chances, to play really well — so we always had the feeling after the game that we did the right thing.
“And at the end, there was just a lack of concentration for a moment, one individual mistake, and that’s why we lost sometimes two points, sometimes even three points.
“That just showed us how much we need to work on the small details, especially defensively.”
The 26-year-old is yet to feature in a pre-season friendly but has been training alongside the first team. Man City kick-off their Premier League campaign with a trip to the newly promoted Brighton on Aug. 8.
