Manuel Pellegrini has denied there is a pattern of bad defending in Manchester City’s season, insisting that any mistakes are on a one-off basis.
In City’s 2-2 draw at Paris Saint-Germain in Wednesday night’s Champions League quarter-final opening leg, each of the goals conceded was down to defensive errors.
For Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s equaliser Fernando was caught dawdling over a goal-kick out from Joe Hart. When Adrien Rabiot later put PSG ahead, the corner from which he did so followed a mix-up between Nicolás Otamendi and Eliaquim Mangala. These two centre-backs have been particularly unreliable this season yet Pellegrini, while not asked directly about them, denied there was systemic fault in his rearguard.
“No, I don’t think that we make always the same mistakes and I don’t think that we are a disaster in defending,” the Chilean said. “We make important mistakes in the game [PSG] but if you see – I am talking about the Premier League that reflects the whole year – I think we are the fourth [best] defence in the Premier League [actually fifth].
“Maybe we concede some easy goals in some games – every team has different problems – but I don’t think we continue making the same mistakes. We had three or four games that don’t represent the way we really defend.”
City are not scoring as easily as in previous years, although Pellegrini denied this is applying more pressure on the defence.
“As a team – and I’m not talking about only my team – it’s always easier to play when you are on top of the scoring,” he said. “If you score the first goal it’s easier for you to play. You play with more patience, with more trust. The team that is behind first always plays with more pressure. That is why scoring first [makes it] easier to play. The only way to win is by scoring goals.”
City host West Bromwich Albion in Saturday’s late game hoping to win a second league outing on the bounce for a first time since Newcastle United and Bournemouth were defeated in October.
Pellegrini said: “As you say, we are not winning two games in a row but I hope that tomorrow we can finish with that problem. In this moment it is more important to be more focused in other things than to analyse why different things happen. I don’t want to be talking about excuses or reasons. It’s very important to finish as high up the table as possible.”
