Man City Must Show Killer Instinct – Pep Guardiola

Pep Guardiola acknowledged Manchester City need to develop a more ruthless instinct after they were held to a frustrating 1-1 draw by Middlesbrough.

Guardiola’s side made a major statement on the European stage when they beat Barcelona 3-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday.

But four days later City looked increasingly lethargic after an impressive first half at Eastlands.

Sergio Aguero’s 150th City goal gave Guardiola’s men the lead at halftime, but the Argentina international missed two good second half chances to add to that tally.

City winger Kevin De Bruyne also put the ball over an unguarded net and the hosts were made to pay for their profligacy in the first minute of stoppage-time when Marten De Roon headed in his first Middlesbrough goal from George Friend’s cross.

“We need to improve in both boxes, both offensive and defensive, to score goals and not concede,” Guardiola said.

“In the second half, we didn’t play like the first one but I think they had one chance at the beginning of the second half, and another in the last minute.

“Maybe in the last minutes, the team can be tired. If we scored the second goal, the chance for Sergio, the game was over. In the last minutes, anything can happen.”

The result means that, for the third successive league match, City have drawn 1-1 after dominating, having suffered the same fate against Everton and Southampton.

“When you see all three games, we dropped six points, but they arrived maybe four or five times in our box,” said Guardiola, whose side have surrendered top spot in the Premier League to Chelsea.

“We attacked really well and controlled the counter-attacks and we created enough chances, more than enough to win the game.

“But when you arrive in the last minutes, and it is just 1-0, everything can happen.”