Pep Guardiola blames the grass after Crystal Palace draw

March 15, 2022

Pep Guardiola complained about the grass being “not perfect” at Selhurst Park as Manchester City suffered a title race blow in a goalless draw with Crystal Palace on Monday, but the Spaniard insisted he had no regrets about his team selection and tactics.

The Citizens were held to a 0-0 result by Patrick Vieira’s Eagles, and found themselves frequently frustrated throughout as they failed to notch a single shot on target in the second half while playing the full 90 minutes without a substitute.

Though City have stretched their lead at the summit of the Premier League to four points now, they have played one more game than rivals Liverpool, with the pair still to meet this season – but aside from a dig at the turf, Guardiola saw his side’s efforts in a positive light.

“There are still many games to play, we have to win a lot of games but the way we played, there’s no regrets about the team,” Guardiola told Sky Sports.

“We would have preferred to win of course but the game was well played.

“We played to win the game, we created more, the way we played was amazing in a difficult stadium with the grass not perfect.”

Speaking to BBC Sport, the Spaniard reinforced his belief that his side performed well, and revealed that he saw no reason to swap players as he believed they were playing their part well.

“We play a really good game,” he added. “In 90 minutes, we concede mistakes a little bit, but the way we played was really good.

“Luck doesn’t exist in football. We have to score goals and we didn’t do it. We played to score goals and concede few. We struggled a little bit.

“The guys who were playing were playing good, that’s why I didn’t make changes. We didn’t score, that was the mistake. The team that was there today was there before and will be there in the next game. I am very pleased with the performance and the way we played.”