One of Bravo’s mis-controls forced the Chilean to lunge at Rooney to clear the ball. José Mourinho, United’s manager, later claimed the challenge should have led to a penalty but Guardiola would not be drawn on the incident. “Normally in my career – or maybe only once or twice in seven years – I don’t speak about the decisions of referees,” said the Catalan. “Sometimes you are lucky. Sometimes you are unlucky but I am not going to talk about the decision of referees.
Pep Guardiola has claimed Manchester City cannot win the Premier League or the Champions League unless they improve, despite his side starting the season with six consecutive wins.
City won the Manchester derby on Saturday to remain the only side in the league with a 100% record and coasted through their Champions League knockout round, defeating Steaua Bucharest 6-0 on aggregate.
In all Guardiola’s side have scored 17 goals and, if Sergio Agüero had not been suspended on Saturday, victory in the derby may have been more emphatic.
Yet, as City were preparing to take on Borussia Mönchengladbach in their opening Champions League group game at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night, Guardiola said: “To take it to the next level we have to improve a lot of things. Now, after four games in the Premier League, I would like to tell our fans that the way we have played up until now, it will not be good enough to win the title. So we have to improve to win the Premier League. Of course, we are so happy with the results and the way we are playing after two months.
“But it is not enough to win the Premier League or the bigger target of the Champions League. We have to improve. But it’s normal. All the teams have to improve, especially for the managers who are new, like United, like us, like Chelsea. When you see Liverpool or Tottenham with [Mauricio] Pochettino, they are clear what they do in 90 minutes.”
Guardiola, meanwhile, has admitted that Claudio Bravo is likely to make further mistakes that will allow opponents to score after the new City goalkeeper endured an error-strewn debut in Saturday’s victory over Manchester United.
Bravo is expected to retain his place against Mönchengladbach with Willy Caballero on the bench after Joe Hart was loaned out to the Serie A club Torino for the rest of the season.
The Chilean’s biggest mistake against United led to Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s first-half goal at Old Trafford as the 33-year-old dropped a Wayne Rooney free-kick, allowing the Swede to score. City hung on to win 2-1 despite Bravo continuing to be shaky and, at times, suspect when using his feet to control and pass the ball.
Yet Guardiola is accepting that the mistake against City will not be Bravo’s last. “Whether it is Claudio Bravo, Caballero or Angus [Gunn, City’s young third-choice keeper], they are going to make mistakes in the future. They are not going to save all the goals from going in,” he said. “They are going to make mistakes, the opponents are going to score goals. I am pretty sure of that.”
The City manager, however, said that he thought Bravo would learn from the experience. “He [Bravo] is so strong,” Guardiola said. “I watched the game again yesterday and saw their goal and his personality after that moment.
“That’s what I was saying after the game. I was convinced by him before the game and it was the same after. Yes, if you lose the ball in the buildup of course you are going to concede a chance but, if it goes well, you have an advantage over the opponent. It will always be like that.”
City start their Champions League campaign hoping to improve on reaching the semi-final last season under Guardiola’s predecessor, Manuel Pellegrini. The other two teams in the group are Barcelona and Celtic.
Agüero is available to face the German club, who finished fourth in the Bundesliga last term, after recovering from a minor injury. “Sergio is not injured. He can play,” Guardiola said. “[Ilkay] Gündogan every day is much better and Vincent [Kompany] is the same situation. Yesterday he trained really good. He is almost there. We have six games in 17, 18 days, so it will be a help for them.”
