Pep Guardiola sarcastically takes aim at Manchester United legend Gary Neville for Man City's 'boring' style of play

Pep Guardiola could only laugh as he responded to Gary Neville's claim that his conquering Man City team is “boring” to watch.

He manchester united the legend made the claim about his Popular podcast 'Overlay' alongside Roy Keane, Ian Wright and Jamie Carragher, and probably didn't think it would provoke a response from the man himself.

Talking to his ex partner first division icons, Neville said: “You just can't look at City, it's almost like they've ruined it a bit.

“To say City are boring would be a mistake because the football they play is excellent, but I actually thought they were boring; I found it difficult to watch them.”

Any football fan can see what the former defender was referring to. city ​​man They are so good, so disciplined in all areas of the court, so clean and orderly, so clinical and so brilliant that they may take some of the emotion out of you when you see them.

But Guardiola has insisted that while his team makes it look easy, it certainly isn't and is the product of an incredible amount of work behind the scenes of the entire Man City operation.

And while his initial response when told of Neville's comments was a snort and a wry smile, he only sees it as a huge compliment to his and his players' efforts.

“Well, thanks for the compliment,” Guardiola told reporters at his Friday press conference.

“Okay, what can I say?

“Everything is so difficult in football, so difficult, that you have to do many things to try to win games and do it for many, many years. So what this group of players has done for many years and also in this season is admirable.

3

“So I take my hat off to my players, it's amazing when you're so consistent, the way they take our opponents seriously and how good they are.

“I had the same opinion before playing against Copenhagen (3-1 away win). It's really incredibly difficult to attack if you're not perfect or really good at many aspects of the game.

“We can't achieve what we achieved this week without that, and we still have a game to play here (the second leg of the Champions League round of 16) that we will take seriously.

“That's all I can say to my players, so I hope we can continue like this.”

Guardiola was then asked if he believes his players do not receive enough credit for their achievements since arriving as manager of Manchester City, where they won five Premier League titles, including the last three in a row: two FA Cups, four Carabao Cups, the Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.

but the first Barcelona and Bayern Munich The coach said: “Of course we have credit, we are admired, I'm pretty sure of that.

“People in the world of football know how difficult it is to spend six or seven years coming and going, one week, another, in all the competitions.”

3

And he concluded with a message to the journalists in the room, and perhaps to Neville too, that Guardiola promised that they will follow them in the years to come and perhaps change the way we all look at this City team.

The boss said, “I'm going to tell you something in the future that you won't forget.

“It sounds easy, but it is not. You will remember that phrase. It sounds easy, but it is not”.

You said that, Gary!