- Man City travel to Anfield on Sunday aiming to end a winless run of six matches
- Guardiola insisted he is determined to oversee a rebuild of the champions
- This Man City team is DONE and Pep Guardiola has been sleeping on the job – LISTEN NOW to It’s All Kicking Off! New episodes every Monday and Thursday
Pep Guardiola insisted that Manchester City’s recent glories are buying him more time to change their fortunes but admitted victory at Liverpool would not kickstart an ailing season.
City tied Guardiola down to a new two-year contract this month but go to Anfield on Sunday amid their worst run of form since 2006 and the manger referencing the need for a squad rebuild.
The 53-year-old maintained that he will not run away from the team’s problems while claiming that chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak will have a decision to make on his future if the slide continues.
‘People say, “Pep, why is he not in trouble? Why is he not sacked?” But what we have done over the last eight years is why I have this margin,’ Guardiola said.
‘The people here rely on me. The moment I feel I am not positive for the club, another one will come. The club will take the solution, the decision they have to take.
‘But I wanted the opportunity. I wanted the opportunity to give me to try. I don’t want to run away. I want to be there.
Pep Guardiola outlined his ambition to rebuild his Manchester City side amid their poor form
Man City head into Sunday’s match with Liverpool eight points behind the league leaders
‘I want to make a rebuild of the team in many aspects from now until the end of the season and the next season, to try to continue up there. I have to prove myself now.’
Guardiola has won only once at Anfield as City boss – in 2021 with no crowd – and City go into a Premier League game as underdogs with the bookmakers for the first time since April 2017.
City will fall 11 points behind the leaders were they to lose against Arne Slot’s side and Guardiola suggested that gap would be insurmountable.
‘With the situation that we have it is not realistic to think about a big, big target,’ he added on the title race.
‘The result won’t change anything. The mood would be better but after three days against Nottingham Forest if you are not stable… you are stable when you are winning 10 or 12 games in a row, like we have done as many years.
‘One game now is not going to change the feeling of how we are as a team.
‘All I would ask is not the result but the players coming back. I just ask the players back to have the team that we created at the beginning of the season to go everywhere to be who we are.
‘From the beginning of the season we could not do that. That is the situation that we had. When people ask me what I want, win games? Yeah but if we don’t have the players sooner or later we’re going to fall down again.
Guardiola admitted it their titles hopes would be ‘more difficult’ if they lose to Liverpool
‘Rodri is not there. What do you have to do? Cry all the time because Rodri is not there? Or because the four central defenders have not been there for a long time in the last month.
‘I have to find a solution. I have to find a way to do it. And this is, I’m trying every day.’
