Pep Guardiola criticises Man City behaviour when defending set pieces

Pep Guardiola says Manchester City players must improve their behaviour when defending set pieces after conceding twice from dead balls against Crystal Palace.

City were brilliant in defensive set pieces last season, conceding just one goal in the league from those situations, but after letting one in at Newcastle last week, they found themselves 2-0 down to Palace on Saturday from two set piece goals.

The first saw the ball ricochet off two City players before hitting John Stones' knee and going in, before Joachim Andersen powered in a header after Kyle Walker's run was blocked and Erling Haaland didn't rise to challenge him. Speaking after the game, Guardiola said that Andersen's threat was highlighted before the match, and the defensive issues were entirely of City's own making.

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"It's behaviour. Set pieces is behaviour," the manager said. "How you behave these actions in set plays. You focus and say 'okay they are not going to score a goal' and offensive set pieces say 'we are going to score a goal.' Of course the taker is important, the block is important, if you want to score a goal you will block it, you want to concede a goal you will not be blocked. If you attack a ball properly."

Asked if that behaviour was missing against Palace, Guardiola replied: "Obviously."

He said: "We concede two goals and they were free. I'm not saying [Ebereche] Eze isn't a good taker and Andersen is so strong, you can imagine in the meetings we had, I said the focus is Andersen. There are many players but the focus is Andersen.

"If you play against Liverpool it's Van Dijk, Matip. He was alone. This is because you are not there, if