Man City boss Pep Guardiola singles out one star for criticism after SHOCK Crystal Palace
Posted Sunday, December 23, 2018 by Express.co.uk
Guardiola has said that Kyle Walker's penalty giveaway shouldn't have happened (Image: GETTY )
PEP GUARDIOLA has lamented his right-back Kyle Walker for giving away a soft penalty in Manchester City’s 3-2 defeat to Crystal Palace.
City suffered the shock defeat after goals from Jeffrey Schlupp, Andros Townsend and Luka Milivojevic secured a vital victory for the Eagles.
City now sit four points adrift of league leaders Liverpool and the pressure is on to keep up with their title rivals.
No team has managed to retain the Premier League since 2009, when Manchester United did it.
Pep Guardiola spoke after the game about the penalty that ultimately sealed City’s fate on Saturday afternoon.
“We cannot concede the penalty we conceded, we have to try and avoid it,” he said.
Guardiola’s men were 2-1 down in the game when the penalty came along and effectively ended City’s chances of winning the game.
The Man City manager believed this to be a crucial turning point in the game.
“We had just made some changes and decided to play with two strikers to try to get back in the game, then straight away we give away a penalty and a third goal,” he added.
Walker gave away a penalty in the second half (Image: GETTY )
“He will learn.”
Guardiola didn’t want to single Walker out, though, and pointed the finger at the rest of his team too.
“Footballers do good things and bad things but everyone else is involved too, those at the front as well as at the back,” the former Barcelona manager said.
“We created enough chances to win the game, in the first half especially.”
City and Liverpool will now both go full steam ahead into a busy Christmas period.
And Guardiola insists that those are the most important games for his side, and not the big match-up with Liverpool on January 3.
"Imperative is the next game, the problem is when you think about the future and are not in the present,” he said.
“We have Leicester and Southampton away, they are the most important games."
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