Following the draw with Mallorca, Guardiola insisted that “we did everything we had to to win there can be no excuses, it was a game we should have won and we didn’t”.
The boss went on: “we dropped two points. We put in a good game, but scoring is part of the
game. We are making plenty of chances to put the game away, but we are not taking them. The players
know they did everything, but we just couldn’t score. There can be no excuses. We should have
won and we didn’t”.
“We didn’t take our chances”
Mallorca’s equaliser came, according to Guardiola: “because
we didn’t close the game down. We failed to win because we failed to take our chances. We
have to learn that lesson and make sure it doesn’t happen again. You can look at the game and
see how well we played and then see just how we have to finish that off by closing it out”.
Need to sharpen up
Guardiola also made it clear though, that he was “not at all unhappy. It was a top
class game and the players put in a good performance and should have won the match. I though the
team was very, very good. We created plenty of chances and played a lot of football. The players
have plenty of goals in them and know how to finish, they know they just need to sharpen up a
little and that’s what we’ll be working on with them”.
Nolito and Thiago
Finally, the boss congratulated Nolito on his debut, claiming that both he and Thiago
”did really well – these minutes on the pitch will help build them up”.
Photos: Miguel Ruiz/Àlex Caparrós/Germán Parga-FCB
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Pitch problems
Quizzed about the state of the pitch, Guardiola admitted: “I can’t say that was the
cause of our failure to win. Evidently we would like it to improve. The truth is that all the La
Liga pitches are suffering, but we have been assured it will be okay for the Valencia game”.
de cara al partido contra el Valencia estaría bien. Esperamos."