Pep Guardiola speaks out in defense of James Trafford

After the 0-2 loss at home against Tottenham, manager Pep Guardiola stood up for goalkeeper James Trafford regarding the error that caused the concession.

Coach Pep Guardiola justified his decision to start James Trafford instead of Ederson and suggested that Manchester City's 0-2 defeat to Tottenham was due to “Man City missed the simple things.”

In the match at Etihad, Ederson remained on the bench, while Trafford made a careless pass that allowed Joao Palhinha to score Tottenham’s second goal near the end of the first half. The 22-year-old goalkeeper, newly returned to Man City from Burnley for £31 million this summer, attempted to pass to Nico Gonzalez, but the ball went to Pape Matar Sarr, who set up Palhinha for a successful finish.

Earlier, Brennan Johnson had opened the scoring for Tottenham. Although Man City created chances, their performance lacked cohesion. Ultimately, the Citizens suffered a 0-2 defeat at home.

With Ederson considering his future at Man City, Guardiola was asked if that influenced his choice of Trafford, who played in the 4-0 victory over Wolves last weekend. The Spanish coach replied: “He had a good game, so I decided to continue with him. When I make decisions early in the season for any player, after one or two matches, people assume: ‘Okay, this is the starting lineup.’ But actually, today I simply made that choice.”

Guardiola added: “We missed the simple things. The effort and movement off the ball were exceptional, I have no doubt about that. We created enough chances, but that’s football. This was only the second match. After the Wolves game, everyone said everything was fine, but I emphasized: ‘That was just the first game.’ It’s the same now. We need to improve step by step until we find our rhythm. Now we have seven days off and then face Brighton.”

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