Man United Vs Man City: Guardiola Clashes With Silva Over Players’ Performance

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola and his midfielder, Bernardo Silva have had a clash of opinions over the team’s performance in their 2-0 loss to rivals Manchester United on Sunday.

Guardiola insisted that his players played very well after Silva had described their performance as unacceptable.

Man City controlled the ball at Old Trafford but didn’t do enough to score a goal and were caught out in the first half when a quick free-kick from Bruno Fernandes was turned home by Anthony Martial to give the Red Devils the lead.

Then their goalkeeper, Ederson added to their woes when he threw the ball straight to Scott McTominay, who didn’t waste time to add a second goal for the home team.

Silva told Sky Sports after the game that the performance was not one that could be accepted by the players.

“It was a bad game for us. Not acceptable. We didn’t start badly and were playing quite well until we conceded,” he said.

“We know how good the Manchester United players are on the counter-attack, very aggressive. So our performance was not acceptable.

“We will have to watch the game back and listen to what Pep has to say. But a team like ours cannot lose this many games. We need to check what’s not going right and try not to make so many mistakes.”

When asked if he shared the player’s opinion during his post match press conference, Guardiola insisted that his men played well.

“Unacceptable? I don’t agree with Bernardo,” he said.

“Over 90 minutes we played really well. In the first half we need to be a little bit more aggressive in the final third.. [Ilkay] Gundo[gan] and Bernardo needed more aggression in their position but in the second half we did it a little bit better.

“In general we played well and congratulations United on the victory.”