Pep crying for Jesus???

Pep Guardiola bemoaned the absence of Gabriel Jesus - claiming: We don’t score goals.
While the Manchester City manager declared his pride following Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool - it was a familiar tale in front of goal, with Sergio Aguero the main culprit as a host of chances went begging.
It was the Argentine’s 69th-minute strike that rescued a point against Jurgen Klopp’s side - but Guardiola admitted there is nothing he can do to cut out his leading scorer’s increasing wastefulness.
On another day Aguero might have had a hat-trick - but after missing two gilt-edged chances in the midweek Champions League elimination to Monaco, he was wayward again against Liverpool
Guardiola said: “In my career I was a football player, I scored 11 goals. One goal a year.
“Can you imagine the advice I say to Aguero and the other guys to score a goal?
“I don’t think so.
“I think managers can have defensive systems, high pressure, build up.
“Every manager has his own things - but the boxes is the boxes.




“How you defend one cross is the quality because you are good with the header.
“When you score a goal it is because you have that quality.
“I want to create more chances, but I am not going to doubt the quality of Aguero at scoring goals.
“It’s his talent. He scores a lot of goals in his career, but we don’t score goals.
“When this happens, it’s so difficult.”
Guardiola has frequently complained about his side’s failings at both ends of the pitch.
But it is his forward line that has caused the greatest frustration, due to his commitment to attacking football.
It is increasingly clear that in Brazilian international Jesus, he believes he has found the perfect man to lead his strike-force.
And that is why he continues to rue the 19-year-old's metatarsal injury after his impact since his January arrival from Palmeiras.
“I like to play good,” he said. “I like to see David Silva, Kevin de Bruyne, the players with talent. I like to see Leroy Sane and these kind of players.
“I would like to have Ilkay Gundogan play with Kevin. I would like to see Gabriel Jesus.
“We didn’t buy another striker because we bought Jesus - but he didn’t come in December.
“So we lost three or four important months. He arrived - his impact was ‘wow.’
“Today you can imagine the game, him with Aguero both there - wow. Liverpool can suffer.




“But after three weeks they are out.
“We create more than them (Liverpool) and again clear chances. That’s tough.
“We don’t score goals. We have the chances, the clear chances in front of the keeper and we don’t score goals again.
“That’s why you cannot compete with the top teams. To achieve the big targets you have to be that clinical to score goals and when you don’t create anything, okay - improve.
“Of course we have to improve - but chances are always there. It’s not just today, it’s the Chelsea game, Tottenham, Stoke - even the last one (Monaco) - second half we had enough to win the game.
“I thought a lot of times what I can do to help my players score goals and it is not easy.”

As I said, this his style of play...it requires you to create lots of chances, which we do....but we're not taking these chances.

When we look back at this season, a few things strike me as pretty obvious.

The MF are creating plenty of chances but we aren't sticking enough away early to put games to bed. The MF also don't chase back enough when we lose the ball. There's too much strolling back rather than busting a gut.

The FB positions are a real problem. Even yesterday, the biggest problem we had was caused by our FBs (finished with Sagna and Clichy) and I think their best chances weren't coming down the middle. We are a little poor (and slow) passing the ball forwards out of defence.

Pep has realised that Willy is better than Bravo at saving shots.