DBasia.news – Manchester City were only able to draw 0-0 when they hosted Southampton in the 2021-2022 continued Premier League at the Etihad Stadium, Saturday (18/9). Even though The Citizens had the full support of their supporters.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has invited his club’s supporters to fill the stadium in the match against Southampton. This was because the Etihad Stadium appeared vacant in the last few matches.
Guardiola acknowledged that the support of the audience is very important for Manchester City to be able to pass a series of their busy schedules smoothly. This seems to be an additional energy for Ilkay Gundogan and his team mates.
Manchester City supporters also agreed to Guardiola’s request. Around 53,500 spectators were present at the Etihad Stadium for the match against Southampton.
They also provided full support throughout the game. Unfortunately their sacrifice seemed to be unappreciated by the Manchester City players.
Not only did they fail to achieve full points, Manchester City appeared sluggish in this match. They were even only able to release one shot on goal throughout the match.
According to Opta’s records, this is the lowest number of shots taken by Manchester City in a game since March 8, 2017. Even though they still dominated possession.
It wasn’t the attacker’s fault
From these statistics, it is easy to blame the spearhead of Manchester City. But Guardiola stated that it wasn’t an individual’s fault but a system of play that does not work.
“Today we didn’t win not because we didn’t have a centre-forward. We didn’t win because our process to build or give better balls to players up front was not good,” said Guardiola.
“We didn’t do our process for our back four and Fernandinho. Five people having to carry the ball to other players wasn’t good enough today.”
This result certainly disappointed Manchester City fans. It is possible that the Etihad Stadium will be quiet again in the next matches.