Manchester City

Kevin De Bruyne: Pep Guardiola "annoyed" by long-ball tactics

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 21 December 2016

Manchester City ace Kevin De Bruyne offers an insight into the mentality of boss Pep Guardiola, who he claims is sometimes left frustrated by defensive-minded opponents.

Kevin De Bruyne has revealed that Pep Guardiola is often left frustrated by opposition sides that change their tactics and go direct when facing Manchester City.

The 45-year-old has tried to put his own spin on the Citizens since taking charge in the summer, often chopping and changing his starting lineup depending on the match in question.

De Bruyne says that Guardiola is still getting to grips with the long-ball approach taken by some teams in the Premier League, but admits that it is down to him and his teammates to adapt to the challenge in order to "find a solution" and pick up the points.

"What Pep is mostly surprised about is that there are still a lot of teams playing with long balls," he is quoted as saying by The Mirror. "He sometimes thinks the teams will try to play football because they do that against other teams. But if it is against us, they change their way of playing. I think that sometimes he must be annoyed by it.

"He puts so much time and energy into looking for things, where spaces might be, but then the opponent uses the long ball. I think he must sometimes think 'why am I doing all this work'. He's not searching, but changing. That's Pep. On the one hand, he adapts, on the other hand he always wants to play dominant football and force others into trouble.

"The problem is that a lot of teams are playing very defensively against us, so we have to try to find a solution. Sometimes it's not so much fun to watch and for us it's not so much fun to play, because that's not our football, but we have to cope with it."

Man City beat Arsenal 2-1 last weekend to make it back-to-back wins in the top flight, leaving them seven points adrift of leaders Chelsea.