Pep Guardiola says his players need penalty practice after Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero both miss from spot against Everton
Man City boss previously refused to practise spot kicks, saying it was impossible to emulate the pressure of a match
PEP GUARDIOLA has admitted his players need practice at penalties.
Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero both fluffed spot-kicks yesterday, meaning more dropped points for Manchester City.
Boss Guardiola claimed his players do not do penalties in training as it is impossible to replicate match pressure.
But they have missed four of eight spot-kicks this season.
And Guardiola said: “I don’t have time to practise everything I want to with 80 per cent of the players on international duty. We were focusing on other points. You can practise them in training but in training nobody is there. There is no pressure.
“In the final of the Champions League, that crucial moment, that is taking penalties. If the player says, ‘I want to be there’, that is enough.”
Despite that, the Spaniard admitted he “maybe” will look at the issue after these two costly blunders. It needed Nolito to rescue a point as he came off the bench to cancel out Romelu Lukaku’s opener.
But man of the match was clearly Everton keeper Maarten Stekelenburg for his spot-kick saves and other heroics.
That bailed out Phil Jagielka, who fouled David Silva and Aguero to concede both penalties.
Dutchman Stekelenburg said: “It’s not only guesswork for the penalties, you do the analysis as well.
“Will Phil Jagielka buy me dinner after that? I will ask him! When you go 1-0 up you hope you can get the three points but you have to be thankful for a point.”
Guardiola was still happy with his team despite a third match without a win.
He said: “I am not frustrated. Compliments to Everton, of course, for the way they defended.
“I am sad for the players. They deserved to win.
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“They did absolutely everything during the game to win it but didn’t. Football is sometimes beautiful for that reason.
“Sometimes you play bad and win the game and you don’t deserve it. Life can always be fair or unfair.
“It is not just about missing a penalty. We made a good performance. It is a pity but we have to accept that and improve and keep going.
“We created enough chances to win the game and played enough good football to win the game. They had one chance in 90 minutes.
“In football it is like this. We must not be too disappointed.”
Guardiola said he is used to opposition teams coming to sit in and defend, as Everton did.
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He added: “All my career I face these things.
“Everton pushed up a few times. We did really well with our build-up.
“I will be judged if we win or lose and the team will be judged. But never in my life am I going to change the way I play football.
“We had a performance, good movement, missed the last pass a lot but no regrets.
“So we try to be optimistic about the future.”
Everton boss Ronald Koeman praised goalscorer Lukaku.
The Dutchman said: “Lukaku is one of the most feared in Europe. He doesn’t need a lot of chances to score.
“He worked hard which is important for the team.”