Manchester City: Pep Guardiola says he trusts ‘hurting’ players to turn round fortunes
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola said his players were hurt by an unprecedented fifth consecutive defeat but he was confident they could turn things around.
this Lost 0-4 at home A devastating blow to Tottenham Hotspur comes just days after Guardiola signed a new two-year contract with the club.
It was City’s heaviest home defeat since 2003 and the first time since 2006 that City had lost five games in a row before Sheikh Mansour began his trophy-laden career as boss.
Guardiola has never suffered five consecutive defeats in his entire coaching career.
This also leaves Manchester City eight points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool and just behind the Reds. 3-2 win over Southampton on Sunday.
“I trust these players more than ever,” Guardiola said.
“I’ve never seen a player in my life want to perform badly or perform badly for the fans or the club. No one wants that.
“When they’re in front of 60,000 people, they want to perform well. But it’s painful for a number of reasons.”
Guardiola has vowed to find a solution to Manchester City’s problems, but it is unclear how he will achieve this ahead of a crucial visit to Liverpool next weekend following Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Dutch side Feyenoord Target.
The absence of Ballon d’Or winner Rodri and Croatian midfielder Mateo Kovacic means City’s defense is under too much attack due to injury.
Tottenham devised a game plan on Saturday to get the ball to Son Heung-min and Dejan Kulusevski as quickly as possible in order to isolate Manchester City’s full-backs and put pressure on the central positions.
Kulusevski said he was looking forward to the challenge more than any other competition this season and the result represented “the best result of my career”.
For City, the experience was even more frustrating.
Guardiola added: “At the moment we are not solid enough, that’s a fact.”
“I wouldn’t say I had bad times, but I’ve been there as a football player. They don’t say, ‘Hey, it’s OK’. You want to do well, but you have doubts.”
Guardiola’s consolation came from the belief that his team had performed well for long stretches of the game.
Against Tottenham, he felt the outcome would have been very different if Erling Haaland had converted one of his two early chances.
He also hopes John Stones, who was limited to just 45 minutes at the weekend, will be in better shape for the trip to Liverpool, along with Manuel Akanji and Neymar. Nathan Ake is both fitter and could provide some options at centre-back, which in turn could lead to more opportunities for Kyle Walker. Josko Gvardiol is more confident after a disappointing individual performance against Tottenham.
It’s fair to assume that someone as persistent and aggressive as Guardiola won’t pay lip service to his overall assessment of the situation.
“When we started losing, I said to people, ‘We’ve got to find a way,'” he said. “This is my duty.
“Sometimes you don’t for a lot of reasons, so which players do we have that are better than others? Let’s try and do that with them.”
