Pep Guardiola on Man City in Salford win: 'Flat and slow and not good'

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola spoke about his team's performance in their 2-0 win over Salford in the FA Cup

Pep Guardiola said the only good thing about Manchester City's afternoon against Salford City in the FA Cup was that they won. The Blues are through to the fifth round of the competition but it was an afternoon to forget at the Etihad otherwise.

City's manager had been clear before the game about the need for his squad to have a break. They have played two games a week for almost all of the season and they have also had the psychological highs and lows of the Premier League title race to contend with over recent matches.

However, Guardiola did not look to use tiredness as an excuse as he instead said that the City XI he put out simply weren't good enough at realising where the spaces were on the pitch so that they could attack their opponents. The only part of the game that the City boss was happy with was after they had gone 2-0 up in the 81st minute.

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"We didn't read the spaces where we were," he said. "The spaces in attack depend on how they defend and we didn't read it. We spent a lot of time to make the process a little quicker than that. The only good news [is] that we go through. That's all.

"It would be nice for me to say mentally we're exhausted, we're tired. It has been a tough two or three weeks for many reasons but it's our job. We have to do what we have to do. The calendar says to play every few days. We just didn't read where the spaces were and that's why everything was flat and slow and not good."

The draw for the fifth round will be on Monday evening ahead of the game between Macclesfield and Brentford, with the game taking place before the first leg of City's last-16 clash in the Champions League. They will find out who they face in that match at the end of the month after the play-off games between Inter and Bodo/Glimt, and Real Madrid and Benfica.

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