Pep Guardiola namechecks two players as he explains why Man City struggled vs Wolves

Pep Guardiola felt Ruben Dias and Mateo Kovacic had to run at the Wolves defence to cause them more problems during Manchester City's 2-1 defeat at Molineux.

The Blues struggled to create chances against a dogged Wolves side, who defended deep and restricted City to few moments in front of goal, with Julian Alvarez needing a 22-yard free-kick to find an equaliser.

But Dias' own goal had put the hosts ahead and Hwang Hee-chan scored after the break to restore their lead, with City then never looking likely to get back into the game.

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Guardiola, who was sat in the stands for the defeat as a result of a touchline ban for three bookings, said his side lacked their usual fluidity in attack because they didn't follow the processes for attacking a side playing a 5-4-1.

"We had our moments and not counting the last 10, 15 mins, because it was more difficult. We didn’t do properly our process, to attack with a little bit more fluidity and that’s why we struggled a little bit," said Guardiola.

"In transitions, [Pedro] Neto was better than us, they beat us in that situation not because we were disorganised, we were in a position to defend well but a difficult game to play, they defend really well.

In explaining the processes that had gone wrong, Guardiola mentioned Dias and Kovacic and a need to occupy central defenders with their direct runs.

"When they defended that well and Kovacic and Ruben had to attack central defenders of their opponents and they didn’t do it, that’s why it was more difficult," he said.

Hwang's winner was controversial given he was fortunate to escape a second yellow card late