Mahrez and Grealish Scored Goals, Guardiola Turned Out Angry

DBasia.news – Riyad Mahrez and Jack Grealish also contributed goals as Manchester City crushed RB Leipzig in their inaugural Champions League 2021-2022 group A match. But the two players also angered the manager, Pep Guardiola.

Manchester City looked mighty when they hosted RB Leipzig at the Etihad Stadium, Thursday (16/9). The Citizens closed the game with a landslide victory 6-3.

Mahrez and Grealish each scored one goal in this match. While the other four were donated by Nathan Ake, Joao Cancelo, Gabriel Jesus, and the suicide of Nordi Mukiele.

Mahrez scored Manchester City’s third goal from the penalty spot in first-half injury time. Grealish did not want to miss and scored his club’s fourth goal with a curling strike early in the second half and contributed one assist for Nathan Ake’s goal.

The contribution of Mahrez and Grealish is not even visible from the goals and assists. Both also play an important role in Manchester City’s attack scheme.

But this fact did not make Grealish and Mahrez untouchable. Both were caught on camera scolded by Guardiola in the middle of the match.

Guardiola was disappointed with the contribution of both in defense. This contributed to making Ederson’s goal down three times by Christopher Nkunku.

“We spoke at half-time about the way we should do it and they didn’t. There was a debate,” Guardiola told BT Sport.

“They (Leipzig) are very good at making four players in the build-up to pull you behind defensive midfielders where there aren’t many players. When the ball is wide, they are very fast when attacking from behind.

“It’s not easy to control it. But when you get the ball back, there are a lot of players in front of the ball to transition and make one or two passes at the back, you have a chance to attack,” he added.

Guardiola is known as a manager who is very detailed in implementing the scheme of play. To run the system built, it requires the cooperation of all players.

Grealish’s Response

Grealish admits his mistake. But consider Guardiola’s anger as normal.

“It’s just a defensive job. I won’t go into it too much because he might want the same tactics at the weekend,” Grealish said.

“That’s what a manager is like, he (Guardiola) always wants to be more defensive and attacking, and he’s definitely someone I’ll listen to after everything he’s done in the game. He provided useful information.”