Manchester City

Ilkay Gundogan: 'Manchester City suffered under Pep Guardiola'

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 26 July 2017

Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan admits that the team "suffered" when trying to implement Pep Guardiola's style of football last season.

Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan has admitted that the team "suffered" with Pep Guardiola's style of football last season.

Guardiola endured a difficult first year in English football, finishing third in the Premier League table and going through an entire campaign without winning a trophy for the first time in his managerial career.

Gundogan believes that it will take even more time to fully immerse themselves in Guardiola's way of playing, but believes that they are on the right course to fulfil his vision.

"Honestly, we suffered with it last season – everything was new for Pep, for the new players like me, maybe for the others as well to understand the idea of Pep's style. The adaptation doesn't come in a few weeks or just in one moment, but I think that the dominant football that we are playing is the right way. We controlled a lot of games last season in the Premier League, maybe 95% of all the games we played," he told ESPN.

"It felt a little bit unfair sometimes, to play the game [for] 90 minutes, to put a lot of effort into the game, to create chances, to play really well – so we always had the feeling after the game that we did the right thing. And at the end, there was just a lack of concentration for a moment, one individual mistake, and that's why we lost sometimes two points, sometimes even three points. That just showed us how much we need to work on the small details, especially defensively.

"Obviously we conceded too many goals last season, too many easy goals especially by doing individual mistakes. I can remember a few games, especially at home at the Etihad Stadium, where we just dropped points unnecessarily – we definitely need to focus on that over the next weeks and when the season starts especially, but we are working on it and I am pretty sure that we are going to be better next season. If we score the same amount of goals that we scored last season, or even more, then I think that's it's going to be a great season for us."

Man City will begin the new season with a trip to promoted Brighton & Hove Albion on August 12.