Manchester City have lost seven of their last 10 games and Pep Guardiola has been accused of losing the dressing room with a number of his key players struggling for form or being left out of the side
Pep Guardiola insists he has not lost the Manchester City dressing room as he grapples with the biggest crisis of his managerial career.
City face United in the Manchester derby at the Etihad having lost seven of their last 10 games. Guardiola must go back 105 matches to chalk up his seven previous defeats at City and he admits he never saw this stunning collapse coming. But he remains defiant and insists City remain united as they prepare to face their fiercest rivals and neighbours. He vowed to quit if he felt the players were no longer listening to him.
“The important thing is how we are inside,” said the City boss. “How the players feel and the staff. There’s one thing when I would say ‘Pep you have to think about it,’ and that’s when I lose the team. When I feel they do not run. When everyone says the manager has lost the team and they don’t follow me.
“In that moment, not one more minute will I be here. But at the minute we are not there and more than ever I am there – no doubt about that.”
Guardiola claimed City might get worse before they get better and warned Blues fans to expect more defeats. “In the past, maybe we would go the whole season and losing seven didn’t happen,” he said.
“But it’s football, it’s life. If you had told me a month ago, when we were top of the league and unbeaten, we were going to lose seven of the next 10, I would say ‘are you crazy? It’s not going to happen to my team’.
“But it’s happened and maybe we’re going to lose more.” Guardiola has conceded what would be a record-extending fifth successive title for City and he feels they are too far behind leaders Liverpool.
They are eight points behind the Reds, having played a game more, and he said: “We don’t have a defence my friends. We’ve lost too many games when this happened. All the criticisms and judging, it’s deserved.”
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