Jack Grealish needs to stop concerning himself with statistics and public opinion and focus purely on his contribution to Manchester City, says Pep Guardiola.
City forked out a reported £100million fee to land attacking midfielder Grealish from Aston Villa in August.
Grealish has managed three goals and three assists from 25 games across all competitions, numbers the England international himself recently suggested do not back up his own personal feeling that Guardiola has improved him as a footballer.
But the City boss says Grealish should take a step back from being too enamoured by the statistics alone.
"Maybe he's wrong. Maybe he listens too much to what people say. It's wrong but the statistics are better and he plays quite similar to Aston Villa in terms of ball contact," Guardiola said.
"He had the chances against Crystal Palace in 20 minutes to score three goals. It didn't happen but it's going to happen.
"We didn't buy him to score 45 goals. He doesn't have that quality he has another one."
Grealish has missed the past three weeks with a shin problem but is in contention to face Peterborough United in the FA Cup fifth round on Tuesday.
Guardiola is of the opinion that Grealish is not alone in focusing too much on the hard numbers.
"Always we talk about the statistics – the players today play for the statistics but this is the biggest mistake they can do," he added.
"We're involved in that. Statistics are just a bit of information that we have but there are players that make the team play good and they are not into statistics. But the players say how many goals I score or how many assists or...
"With these kinds of situation, they forget everything. Statistics never existed before. It's how you play today if you perform to your maximum, to your best, help your team-mates to make the process defensively and offensively better – it's enough. Thanks to that we are going to win.
"Everyone has agents and managers and everything and say what they have to do better and they listen to a lot of things about what they have to do.
"He's playing good. I would tell him – I wouldn't tell you – if he's not playing good, but that's not the case."
First half was the worst I’ve seen us – Phil Foden savours thrilling fightback
Phil Foden felt Manchester City were at their worst before recovering from 2-0 down to secure top spot in their Champions League group with a 3-2 win over Leipzig.
The holders trailed to two breakaway Lois Openda goals at half-time of Tuesday’s clash at the Etihad Stadium.
Foden sparked their recovery after the interval, teeing up goals for Erling Haaland and substitute Jeremy Doku either side of scoring a sublime effort himself.
The England midfielder told TNT Sports: “First half was the worst I’ve seen us. Courage and motivation courage changed it around. This team has great mentality and it’s so nice to see.
“We just needed that goal to get going. Even the fans were a lot louder after the goal. Once the first went in the motivation was there. We’ve got a great record at the Etihad and it only takes one goal to change things.”
City’s victory not only made certain of preferential seeding in the last 16 for a seventh successive season but extended their English record unbeaten run in European competition to 19 games.
Manager Pep Guardiola was pleased with that achievement but admitted concern about the performance.
The Spaniard said: “If we talk about the qualification it is a great night. If we talk about the game, we could do better.
“Sloppy goals – in football you have to win duels and it was quite similar against Chelsea. We were solid and now we’ve had two warnings already.
“It’s the same up front. We’ve had chances and missed them.
“But maybe for the future it’s good to win not comfortably, to show we are able to make a comeback.
“When we scored early in the second half, 45 minutes was a long time for them. It was not easy because they defended really well and they were strong, but we are there.
“Now we have five days to recover for the game against Spurs.”
Leipzig’s display was a huge improvement on their 7-0 loss at the same venue last season and coach Marco Rose felt his side were unfortunate not to get more from the game.
Rose said: “We knew we made them angry in the first half. It got more difficult.
“If we kept the clean sheet a little bit longer, maybe then the chance would become bigger and bigger to win or to take something home, but at the end you need a little bit of luck and that is what we missed maybe.
“We played a really good game, but this is City.”
Barrow’s climb is a victory for hard work, says boss Pete Wild
Pete Wild believes his side’s hard work is paying off after Barrow moved into the Sky Bet League Two promotion places with a comfortable 2-0 win over Walsall at Holker Street.
Goals from Ben Whitfield and Niall Canavan secured all three points as the Bluebirds extended their record unbeaten league run to 10 games.
Whitfield put the home side ahead after 11 minutes, controlling Canavan’s long range pass before placing the ball perfectly into the far corner from the edge of the area.
The Bluebirds got the second they deserved with 19 minutes remaining when skipper Canavan pounced to force the ball home from close range for his second of the season, after George Ray’s initial effort was blocked.
Barrow have now registered five consecutive league wins for the first time since the 1967-68 season and moved up to third in the table.
Wild said: “Winning games breeds confidence and the more you win the more confident you get.
“I’m really pleased for the players and staff and everyone is really working hard this season and that’s paying off in terms of results.
“Good seasons are built on good runs and consistency, so the longer we can keep this run going the better for everyone at the club.”
“I thought it was a really solid front footed performance tonight. They say this is a tough place to come and I wanted it to be just that tonight.
“The way we started the game and the energy we played with was really pleasing and we got our first goal from being positive and getting at Walsall from the start of the game.
“I thought the way Walsall would play would give us space between the lines so I thought it would be an interesting one for Ben Whitfield to start and it paid off for us.”
Walsall are now six matches without a win and manager Mat Sadler said: “It was a tough watch for anyone who was at the game.
“We went into the game knowing how poor the pitch was and we highlighted how poor the pitch was and it suited the way they play as they play here every week, how they get goals, how they create chances.
“They get it in the areas and create chances from the wide areas which is what they did and we didn’t do that nearly enough for the ability we’ve got in our team.
“So we’re extremely disappointed to let them get their noses in front on a turgid pitch and we didn’t get anything near good enough going for the standards we set ourselves.
“We dropped well below the standards that we set ourselves tonight but we will put it right.”
I just want the lads to understand me better – Grant McCann after Doncaster win
Grant McCann will focus on ensuring his messages are getting through to his Doncaster players loud and clear after being left frustrated with aspects of their performance in the win over Colchester.
A Tom Smith own goal and efforts from Mo Faal and Joe Ironside saw Rovers to a 3-1 triumph.
While pleased with the result, McCann felt his side did not heed his instructions to push for more goals after each occasion when they found the net.
“We got the first goal and then we just sat back a bit again,” he said. “It’s something we need to get to the bottom of.
“I spoke to the group and said if it’s something I’ve said, I’d hold my hands up but doing that is not something that’s coming out of my mouth.
“After the first goal, we let Colchester come on to us for a five minute spell and Joe Taylor nearly scored before he actually got the equaliser.
“We made it hard for ourselves but I said to the lads at half-time that if we score the next one, we have to keep going and get more. You have to keep the foot down but we sat off again and Colchester had chances.
“It’s not too much of a dig at the lads because on the whole I thought we were good and it’s a good response to losing in the last minute at Crewe.
“But I just want the lads to understand me better. They have to push themselves up the pitch because we speak about it all the time – scoring and scoring again.”
Joe Taylor netted an equaliser for Colchester before the break but the visitors offered little in the way of real threat in the second half.
Head coach Matt Etherington was bitterly disappointed with United’s performance.
He said: “It wasn’t good enough in the second half and it was probably the worst 45 minutes of football since I’ve come into the role.
“It’s really disappointing. The players kept going until the end and had a couple of chances but we didn’t deserve to win it with that second-half performance.
“Two set-pieces again – players not picking their man up from the second phase. Ultimately those two set-pieces have cost us the game.
“You’re always facing an uphill battle when you’re conceding goals from set-pieces on a regular basis so it’s something that we’re addressing. It’s obviously still not getting addressed properly because we’re conceding goals and we’ll have to have a word about that and a look at the set-up.
“The set-up hasn’t changed throughout the season and it was good early on. Teams will notice that we’re susceptible to set-pieces and we need to do something about it.”
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