Pep Guardiola bemoans ‘lack of aggression’ from Manchester City after Leeds loss

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has pointed to his side’s ‘lack of aggression’ for their defeat to 10-man Leeds United on Saturday.  

Stuart Dallas put Leeds in front in the first half at the Etihad Stadium, before adding another in stoppage time to rule out Ferran Torres’ equaliser and see City lose 2-1. 

Guardiola claims his City failed to ‘create’ chances but credited Leeds for a ‘fantastic’ performance. 

Pep Guardiola blames Manchester City’s ‘lack of aggression’ for their downfall against Leeds

Speaking after the game, Guardiola said: ’11v11 was tight and we conceded a goal that we could have avoided. We were not aggressive enough in these areas.

‘We were in the final positions but we could not score the goal and after the sending off, we didn’t create enough maybe a little more but we concede another one. 

‘At the end it can happen, a team like this who are fantastic and congratulations. It was not very clear our chances, we could not create much.

‘When I play a game, I think we can win. The guys tried but we couldn’t do it.’

Stuart Dallas scored two goals to see Manchester City lose 2-1 at the Etihad on Saturday

His second goal (above) came in stoppage time and ruled out Ferran Torres’ equaliser

The result is a minor setback for Manchester City, who will still be eight points ahead of Manchester United even if they win their games in hand against Tottenham and Burnley. 

City now only need 11 points from their remaining six games to guarantee a third league title in four seasons. 

Leeds, meanwhile, have now given themselves a slim chance of finishing in a Europa League spot after climbing up to 10th and to within four points of sixth after Saturday’s surprise win.