Despite Being Threatened With Relegation, Pep Guardiola Doesn't Want Manchester City To Play Pragmatically

Pep Guardiola keeps Manchester City's beautiful game despite the threat of relegation from the Premier League (Instagram/@mancity).

JAKARTA - Manchester City faces the threat of reducing points and even relegating from the Premier League.

This cannot be separated from the 115 charges of violating competition regulations following an investigation into The Citizens' finances.

Pep Guardiola feels that some of Manchester City's detractors want to see their club erased from the face of Earth.

The long-awaited trial on this issue began earlier this week and the verdict is expected to be delivered next year.

Guardiola previously claimed that some rivals of the club wanted to see them found guilty. He also doesn't seem to hesitate that City's competitors will expect harsh penalties.

The Spaniard raised the issue without being asked as if he conveyed an answer about people's tendency to criticize his troops' poor appearance, which tends to be depressed more often.

"For one season, you can say, it was a bad season. However, for appearances, some people say, it's a shame, it's a disaster, it's unacceptable."

"No, for 90 minutes it was a bad one afternoon when they played better. However, I would say, sorry."

"I want to defend my club, especially in this modern era when everyone expects us not only to be relegated, but also to disappear from the face of Earth," Guardiola said at Manchester Evening News.

Despite receiving a lot of criticism regarding his troop game, Guardiola refused Manchester City to be called pragmatic playing.

Pragmatis yang dimaksud adalah mencetak keunggulan lebih dahulu, lalu mempertahankan keunggulan hingga akhir.

Usually the style of play ends with a narrow score victory and more bus parking strategies aka holding up completely after winning.

However, Guardiola still emphasizes the style of possession of the ball from behind with a ball flowing fast.

This style received a slight modification to adjust the opponent to show the best game of each match.

In other words, pragmatism is not something that is usually associated with City. However, Guardiola has his own views on pragmatism.

"We are very pragmatic as a team, look at the results. People think if you're playing build-up, lots of passes, and maybe there's no long pass or transition, then we're not pragmatic."

"(People believe) being pragmatic is only related to results and not in beautiful football. I don't believe that."

"Pragmatic? We are the best team in the world in terms of being pragmatic. Look at the numbers. We won a lot."

"I believe in being pragmatic and we believe in the way we play. We are very pragmatic, the best in my opinion. Sorry, that's true," said Guardiola.

This means that the view of Guardiola's pragmatics is not about results, or what is important is that the semi-nimum may lead to the end, but how the style of beautiful play is more practical in producing many goals, staying attractive, and winning convincingly.