Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says he would have been fired from every other club after the long premier League champions win, the less at the beginning of this season.
City gets Manchester United rivals at Old Trafford in Of Sunday SuperLive on HeavenlyTrying to maintain their push for the Champions League football next season, as they now begin to resemble the team that won the last four Premier League titles.
However, such a scenario seemed a distant dream for City fans after the Guardiola team endured a horror run of just one win in 13 games in all the competitions again in November and December that left them to be plunged into a seventh place at the table on boxing day.
A list of poor injuries, including an ACL that ends the season for the Rodri key holding midfielder, was partly to blame for their surprise form in shape, though the manager also holds hands up.
“One of the main reasons has been the absence of many injured players in important departments, so we were competing in a more difficult period with only 12 to 13 older players in the team,” Guardiola said.
“It is difficult every three days. In the past when we won a lot, though we had a lot of problems as well. Not as much as this season, but many. We were always able to dance again and overcome the situation.
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“This season I was unable to help the team to do it. I was unable to find the right trick. In the past I was able to guide them, tell the boys,” this is the way you have to survive in that moment, “because the good moments will come in. We were unable to do it.”
However, while Guardiola admits he was expecting some sort of abandonment after his team won four right titles, he did not think it would be so heavy.
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“I said many times and am very honest – the success we had in the past, that surprised me because I didn’t expect it,” he said.
“Happened what happened this season, when in the last one or two seasons more or less, I said it would happen. But I didn’t expect it probably so deep, you know.
“I thought,” Well, we’ll fall. “But in terms of results, in terms of performance, we suddenly fell.”
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So much, in fact, what goes to Manchester’s earlier derby in Etihad in December, Guardiola – who signed a new two -year deal in November – even said his work in City would be under threat if the team would not start win again soon.
City lost again that day after United came from behind to win 2-1 late, and Guardiola said that in another club, without all the success he has brought to Etihad since 2016, he would have lost his work.
“In other clubs, without the last success, I would have been fired,” he said. “This is a big club you need to offer good things.
In other clubs, without the last success, I would have been fired, definitely.
“But I too think all of us, the staff, ourselves, deserve a chance, after what we had in the past.
“In another club, in another environment, we lost a lot of games in big clubs, could not happen. But fortunately, they (the city board) gave me a vote of confidence to continue.”
However, seeing next season, Guardiola said he expects a return to the old town.
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“At the moment, we’ve had bad moments, but listen, in football, in sports, you have that time, so I also said many times, you can’t win all the races you are,” he said.
“You can’t win all the time because it’s just impossible. So, I never expect it when the last season we have won the Premier League, we won the next 10 years.
“So many things happened. What happened last season, this does not mean it will happen next season. Hopefully next season will not happen like this season. Of course, we have to change things, but next season will be better.”
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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says the club is still focused on qualifying for the Champions League this season and that he is still in their hands.
And while Guardiola said he and his players will give everything in their last eight campaign matches to qualify for next season’s Champions League – City is currently sitting in the fifth place, which while things stand would be enough to see them progress to the European Club Prime Competition – he is also not to point out if they were not.
“How many important clubs in the last three, four or five years have not played in the Champions League and they are still there? The club will find a solution,” he said. “Of course, we want to be there. But only if it won’t happen, what else? We can’t stop and be complaining all the time.
“Of course, it’s in our hands. We have eight matches. So we will go for it. We are the only club in the last 15 years, every season has been in the Champions League. That’s consistency. This is the club, how well we have done it. And we want to continue that way.
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“The club will not die. As for what to do for next season, being there. But of course, we have our derby Sunday. And after still seven games left and four at home, three away. All of them are hard. I am not denying it because they are good.”
Guardiola, however, thinks he has seen enough of City’s last two victories in Bournemouth in the FA Cup quarterfinals on Sunday and at home in Leicester City in the league Wednesday to give him the true confidence his side has returned.
“In the last two games, I saw something I like,” he added. “I remember some things we’ve seen in the past. And that’s what we have to build from there.”
