Man City players 'forgot to pass' in Brighton defeat as Guardiola reveals what 'shifted' the game

Pep Guardiola says his Manchester City players “forgot to pass the ball” and were “not good enough” in their defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday.

Brighton came from behind to earn their first win of the season at home to the Cityzens, who have lost two of their opening three matches.

Guardiola’s side were beaten at home by Tottenham Hotspur last week and took the lead at the Amex through Erling Haaland.

Fabian Hurzeler’s substitutions flipped the game on its head, making a quadruple change after an hour, bringing on his side’s goalscorers James Milner and Brajan Gruda.

Former City midfielder Milner equalised from the penalty spot after Matheus Nunes handled the ball and Gruda grabbed the victory with an outstanding goal in the 89th minute.

In his assessment of the defeat, City manager Guardiola said the Brighton equaliser “shifted” the game as his players then “forgot to pass the ball”.

He told Sky Sports: “We concede the goal and after that it shifted. Until then it was really, really good, we had chances and the team looked aggressive and dynamic. We made a good hour and then after the last half an hour we were not good. We forgot to pass the ball, just played long balls and we were not good enough. It is what it is.

“Erling is our big threat but in general we made a good hour and after we concede the goal, a bit like Tottenham, we concede and everywhere we don’t continue to do what we need to do. It can happen, you still have time because it is possible to concede in the Premier League. Of course everyone makes the substitutions to get better and they did it well but it all changed after the goal.

“We have a really good squad and of course we changed many things form the past to now, which is normal, we need new players to adapt and we need the older ones to help them to cope.

“Rodri played a really good performance and he is a top character. Happy he played 90 minutes and I would say that he could handle his minutes in the national team and after we start the season.

“I like many things that we are doing and when we come back we know the squad we are going to have and we are going to try to compete.”

Guardiola added to BBC Sport: “Yeah. we conceded two goals. We were excellent for one hour. After the goal we forgot to play. We were thinking of the consequences.

“I like many, many things we are doing. Like against Tottenham, we started well. I like many things the team has done here today but we were unable to win. When we conceded the goal we stopped playing.

“It’s one game. The season has just started. There is a long, long season ahead of us. We will see what happens.”

Meanwhile, Seagulls head coach Hurzeler said it was “energy, intensity and togetherness” that won the game, not tactics.

“Sometimes football is not too much about tactics,” he said. “It’s about energy, intensity and togetherness on the pitch. The substitutes came in and made the difference. You always can spread energy and it gives your teammates and the whole crowd energy and that is very important in football.

“What we did after we scored the goal and the subs is that we had the belief. We weren’t happy and satisfied with the 1-1, we want to go for the second and we deserved it.

“Pep is for me the best coach in the world and it is always a big challenge to face him. He always had new ideas and you have to adapt. It is always the biggest challenge to compete against him but it’s not a one man show it is a team performance, and I am very happy that my players delivered that on the pitch, they committed to each other, suffered together.”

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