Sky Sports‘ Gary Neville has responded to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola’s comments about his punditry.

Neville had raised questions about complacency in the squad, having won three consecutive league titles, which Guardiola didn’t take too kindly to. However, Neville says it is common practice for the City boss to lash out, and he believes it is because he wants a reaction from his players so they can close the gap on Arsenal at the top of the table.

“I thought it [Guardiola’s response] was that siege mentality – have a go at someone, he said something about the crowd last week.”

“If you go back to this time last year – I don’t know if it was the same sort of time – but [Manchester City] played Tottenham at home. They were getting beat 2-0 and then they won 4-2, and he came out and had a bit of a go at people.”

“It feels to me like he’s a little bit worried about Arsenal, the fact that he’s done that and he feels he needs to give everyone a kick up the backside.”

Guardiola is shouldering the blame for City’s poor form

Unlike other managers, who would throw their players under the bus after a run of bad results, Guardiola is taking the completely opposite approach.

His staunch defence of his players and his criticism of Neville and other pundits is designed to take the pressure off his team, and put the focus purely on himself. It has worked before, as Neville has pointed out.

Creativity rather than complacency is City’s main issue

The City boss clearly knows where the problems lie. When speaking about Rodri in his pre-match press conference ahead of the Luton fixture this weekend, he questioned the team’s lack of creativity as a more pressing issue than the Spaniard’s absence for the defeat against Villa:

“It’s too simplistic to say the absence of Rodri is the difference. He’s a great player but we have less creativity and I don’t think that’s just Rodri being missing.”

Against Villa, City had only 2 shots on goal in the whole game, and that must change if they are to remain title contenders.