New Delhi: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, has taken the blame on himself for his club’s poor recent form. City entered the season, defending their fourth consecutive Premier League title and had won the title six times in the last seven years. However, they are currently 14 points behind table leaders Liverpool, with a win last weekend ensuring they enter the new year, placed sixth. Their 2-0 victory over Leicester City was their second in 14 games across competitions.
For Guardiola, this is amongst the worst phases of his managerial career, which includes successful stints with Barcelona and Bayern Munich. As they host West Ham at the Etihad Stadium, they are looking for their first back-to-back win since October. Guardiola maintained that the fault lies with him when he was asked if he was trying to shield his players from being blamed for their performance. The 53-year-old felt that players tend to drop in performance as the campaign progresses and it happened even last season.
In his ninth season at the club, the Spaniard felt that there were some things that he had “missed somethings” and there was a need for correction from his side. Guardiola further commented that when a team loses many games, a manager needs to reflect on what the team requires and how to rebuild confidence within the circle.
🎙️| Pep Guardiola on #ManCity’s bad form:
“I’m unbelievably honest with myself and I know the reason why…”
“The main, main reason is me…” 🗣️
📰 via @BeanymanSports pic.twitter.com/3vQbZSXPOl
— City HQ (@City_HQs) January 3, 2025
City have made slow starts in the season before and even trailed the leading team by six points or more in their four title-winning season but this has been their poorest patch of run. Guardiola stated that their consistent poor performance should have enabled him to figure out the real reason behind the poor performance. This is one of the reasons that Guardiola has constantly blamed himself for the poor run of events.
Manchester City’s injury woes
There have been multiple injuries for City this that has also being deemed as one of the reasons for their poor form in the season. With Rodri missing for major part of the season, Guardiola’s woes in the midfield just kept piling.
Apart from Rodri, he will again be without the services of John Stones, Ruben Dias, Oscar Bobb, and Matheus Nunes during City’s game against West Ham, who arrive at Etihad without their captain Jarrod Bowen, who is out due to a fractured foot. City are going to come to the clash with some good news as Ederson returns to the squad after spending three matches on the sidelines due to a leg injury.
Despite the injury lists, Guardiola felt that it shouldn’t have stopped them from putting out good performances, though that was one of the primary reasons for the below-par results from City. Guardiola noted that they were the only side at the end of October to be unbeaten but it is indeed a long story since.
Ahead of Manchester City’s clash against West Ham, Pep Guardiola has admitted he is more at fault for his failure to deliver results and find ways to improve the morale in the team. Football Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
