Manchester City Manager Pep Guardiola says he would have been fired by any other club after the Premier League masters’ long victorious races earlier this season.
City is taking on rivals Manchester United at Old Trafford at Super Sundaylives on Sky SportsTrying to maintain their push for the Champions League football next season, which has now begun to look like the page that won the last four Premier League titles in a row.
However, such a scenario seemed to be a distant dream for City’s fans after Guardiola’s team endured a horror of only a victory in 13 games in all competitions back in November and December, leaving them to float in a completely unknown seventh place in the table on Boxing Day.
A debilitating damage list, including a season -ending ACL for key -sustaining midfielder Rodri, was partly the blame for their surprise fall in shape, though the manager also holds his hands up.
“One of the main reasons has been the absence of many wounded players in important departments, so we competed for the toughest period with only 12 to 13 senior players in the team,” Guardiola said.
“It’s difficult every three days. In the past, when we won a lot, even though we also had a lot of trouble. Not as much as this season but much. We were always able to jump back and overcome the situation.
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“This season I was unable to help the team do it. I was unable to find the right trick. In the past I was able to guide them, to tell guys, ‘this is the way you have to do to survive the moment’ because the good moments are coming. The sun rises in the future. We were unable to do so.”
While Guardiola admits he was expecting a kind of drop-off in shape after his side won four equal titles, he didn’t think it would be that serious.
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“I said many times, and I’m incredibly honest – the success we had before it surprised me because I didn’t expect it,” he said.
“What happened this season when in the last or two seasons I said more or less, I said it will happen. But I didn’t expect maybe so deep, you know.
“I thought, ‘okay, we’ll fall’. But in terms of results, we fell in terms of performance unexpectedly.”
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In fact, so much so that on the way into the previous Manchester Derby on Etihad in December, Guardiola – who signed a new two -year deal in November – even said his job in City would be threatened if the team didn’t start winning again soon.
City lost again that day when United came from behind to win 2-1 late, and Guardiola said he at any other club, without all the success he has brought to Etihad since 2016, would have lost his job.
“In other clubs, without the recent success, I would certainly have been fired,” he said. “This is a big club that you have to deliver good things.
In other clubs, without the recent success, I would certainly have been fired.
“But also I think we all, the staff, ourselves, we deserve a chance, according to what we had in the past.
“In another club, in another environment, we lost a lot of games in the big clubs, it can’t happen. But fortunately [the City board] Gave me a confidence voting to continue. “
Looking forward to next season, Guardiola said he expects a return to the city of Old.
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“At the moment we had bad moments, but listen, in football, in sports you have that period, so I also said many times, you can’t win all the competitions you’re in,” he said.
“You can’t win all the time because it’s simply impossible. So I never expect when the last season won the Premier League we won for the next 10 years.
“So many things happened. What happened last season, it doesn’t mean it will happen next season. Hopefully next season will not happen like this season. Of course we have to change things, determined. But next season will be better.”
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And while Guardiola said he and his players will give everything in the last eight games in the campaign to qualify for next season Champions League – City is currently in fifth place, which is enough to see them move on to Europe’s leading club competition – he is also quick to point out that it wouldn’t be the end of the world if they don’t.
“How many important clubs in the last three, four or five years have not played in the Champions League, and still are they there? The club finds a solution,” he said. “Of course we’ll be there. But just in case it won’t happen, what’s next? We can’t just stop and complain all the time.
“Of course it’s in our hands. We have eight matches. So we’ll go after that. We’re the only club in the last 15 years every single season has been in the Champions League. It’s consistency. It’s the club how well we’ve done it. And we’ll continue that way.
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“The club will not die. As for what we need to do for next season, to be there. But of course we have on Sunday our derby. And after still seven games left and four at home, three away. Everyone is difficult. I don’t deny it because they are good.”
However, Guardiola believes he has seen enough from City’s two last wins in Bournemouth in the FA Cup quarterfinals on Sunday and at home to Leicester City in the league Wednesday to give him a real belief that his side is back.
“In the last two matches I saw something that I like,” he added. “I remember a few things that we saw earlier. And that’s what we have to build from there.”