Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola has contradicted one of his “disappointed” players after claiming they were “careless” in the 2-0 defeat to Juventus.

Man CityThe ongoing crisis worsened on Wednesday night when they lost 2-0 to Juventus in the Champions League group stage.

Dusan Vlahovic and Weston McKennie scored goals for the Serie A giants in their elimination GuardiolaThe team is in 22nd place in the table with two group games remaining.

Now their attention turns to Sunday’s Manchester derby against Man Utd at the Etihad. Before this game, City are in 19th place in the Premier League form table and eight points behind league leaders Liverpool, who still have a game in hand.

Man City have won just one of their last ten games in all competitions and produced another disappointing performance against Juventus. After the game, midfielder Ilkay Gündogan admitted that he felt they were “careless with tackles” and that “every” attack they conceded was “so dangerous”.

“It’s very disappointing. We had the chance to score a few goals, but at the moment it feels like every attack we concede is just dangerous,” Gündogan said after the game.

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“I sometimes have the feeling that we are a bit careless in duels. Instead of playing simply, we complicated things and missed the right time to release the ball. Just lose the ball and give them counterattacks.

“We’re designed to keep the ball, keep the ball, be strong, if you can’t do anything, don’t lose it. “It’s not working for us at the moment.”

Responding to these comments, Guardiola dismissed Gündogan’s claims saying Man City’s “performance” against Juventus was “there”.

“He said we don’t need to… Excuse me? No, no, we did it today, other days, no, but today we did it, we did it really well,” Guardiola replied.

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“We didn’t lose a lot of balls like before, but tried to get into the (best) positions. Italian teams defend so deeply and compactly that they can master these situations.

“Still, we played the way we are. We missed the result, but the performance is there.”

Guardiola has also admitted he is “questioning himself” during this run but he “loves” his team.

“Of course I question myself, but I am stable in good and bad moments,” Guardiola added.

“I’m trying to find a way to make it work. I am incredibly honest. When we play well (I say) we played well, and today I thought we played well.

“Our game will save us. We can do it. Compared to the game at Nottingham Forest, which we won, we conceded very few chances. We’re going at the right pace.

“We missed the last pass, didn’t get into the six-yard box (at the right time) and didn’t have the composure at the right moment.

“But I love my team. That’s life, it happens. Sometimes you have a bad period, but I’ll persist until we get there.”