Guardiola praises City youngsters despite Tottenham loss | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola said that he is proud to have achieved such a long unbeaten run with Manchester City after his side were dumped out of the Carabao Cup by Tottenham.

Despite the loss, Guardiola had very few complaints and made sure to laud the performances of the various City academy youngsters who featured.

It was far from a full strength City lineup, featuring James McAtee and Nico O’Reilly starting in midfield, while more youngsters in 19-year-old Jacob Wright and 18-year-old Jahmai Simpson-Pusey came off the bench.

Speaking at full time, Guardiola said that the gap between defeats for City is good news: “This is the news, not that we lose, but how long it has been since we lose.

“Of course with the FA Cup final we were a little hungover, but it is good news.

“I don’t like to lose, you know, but this competition is a little bit different. I like to see the team, how we behave, the courage and the solidarity, and how good we play. I like it.”

The loss was their first since losing the FA Cup final to Manchester United in May, before which they were most recently beaten by Real Madrid in the Champions League.

Guardiola added he was impressed by the younger players who featured, saying that the Carabao Cup is important for academy graduates to get a first team chance.

“It is really good, this competition, to use these players to play. I am really pleased. Really pleased. Today was 90 minutes against a really composed team that is so difficult to handle.

“Today Nico played like the Nico we met in preseason, Jacob was really good, Jahmai played exceptional in the minutes that he played.”