Pep Guardiola claims he is “not coaching tackles”

In the Premier League, a manager’s pre- and post-match comments can influence perceptions as much as the result itself.

David Moyes’ results as Manchester United boss didn’t help his cause, but comments about “making things difficult” for lesser opposition – and other unflattering soundbites – turned him from struggling manager to dead man walking in some people’s eyes.

David Moyes says #mufc must improve in a number of areas, including passing, creating chances and defending.

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) December 9, 2013

Now, we’re not saying Pep Guardiola is in anything close to the same amount of trouble, but the Champions League winner is in the middle of a rough spell at Manchester City.

After six wins from six at the start of the season, a recent run of 12 points from nine games could leave Guardiola’s men seven points adrift at the top of the table by Sunday afternoon.

The 4-2 defeat at Leicester looked at one point as if it could be a whole lot heavier, with the home side scoring twice in the first five minutes and clinching victory long before Aleksandar Kolarov and Nolito fired late consolations beyond Ron-Robert Zieler.

So far, so bad. But the Man City manager’s comments are in danger of overshadowing even the most comprehensive of defeats.

Pep on being told MCFC didn't win a tackle in first 35 mins: 'I'm not coaching tackles. I'm not training for tackles … what's tackles?'

— Sam Wallace (@SamWallaceTel) December 10, 2016

Now, we’ve got a few theories about Guardiola’s comments about not training for tackles:

1. Defending is a complex art which cannot be broken down into simple, isolated components like tackling
2. Guardiola isn’t used to his teams needing to win the ball back, so this has actually never come up before
3. He has decided that, if you’re playing in defence for a Premier League team, you probably already know how to tackle properly
4. He has instituted a ban on tackling after Sergio Agüero’s red card challenge on David Luiz last weekend – if he doesn’t acknowledge tackling’s existence then it can’t happen again
5. He’s still learning English, and has always used the word ‘challenge’ instead of the word ‘tackle’
6. He didn’t want to address all the other problems so he was just stalling for time.

If you have any other theories about what this all meant, we’d love to hear them

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