Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says he would have been fired by another club after the long Win-Less Run of the Premier League champions earlier this season.
City assumes on Rivals Manchester United on Old Trafford on Super Sunday, Live on Sky Sports, in an attempt to maintain their push for Champions League football next season after they now look like the last four Premier League titles in a row.
Such a scenario, however, seemed like a distant dream for the fans of the city after the Guardiola team had passed a horror run of just one victory in 13 games in all competitions in November and December, causing them to quit in a completely unknown seventh place in the table on Christmas Day.
A debilitating injury list, including a seasonal ACL for key -hanging midfielder Rodri, was partly the fault for their surprise step in the form, although the manager also holds his hands up.
“One of the main reasons is the absence of many injured players in important departments, so we competed in the most difficult period with only 12 to 13 senior players in the team,” Guardiola said.
“It is difficult every three days. In the past we won a lot, although we also had many problems. Not as much as this season, but a lot. We could always bounce back and overcome the situation.
“This season I was unable to help the team to do it. I was unable to find the right trick. In the past I could guide them, to tell boys:” This is the path you have to do to survive at that moment “because the good moments will come. The sun will come up in the future. We couldn't do it.”
Although Guardiola admits that he expected a kind of drop-off in shape after his side had won four straight titles, he did not think it would be so serious.
“I often said and I am incredibly honest – the success we had in the past, that surprised me because I didn't expect it,” he said.
“What happened this season, when I said more or less in the last one or two seasons that it would happen. But I didn't expect that deep, you know.
“I thought,” Okay, we're going to fall “. But in terms of results, in terms of performance, we have fallen unexpectedly.”
So much even that, in fact, on the way to the previous Manchester Derby in the Etihad in December, Guardiola – who signed a new two -year -old deal in November – that his job at City would even be threatened if the team did not soon start winning again.
City lost that day when United came from behind to win 2-1 and Guardiola said that at any other club, without all the success he has brought to Etihad since 2016, he would have lost his job.
“In other clubs, without the recent success, I would certainly be fired,” he said. “This is a big club that you have to deliver to deliver good things.
“But I also think we all, the staff, ourselves, deserve a chance, after what we had in the past.
“In another club, in a different environment, we have lost many games in the big clubs, it can't happen. But luckily, them [the City board] gave me a voice of confidence to continue. “
Looking ahead to next season, Guardiola said he expected a return to the city of the city.
“At the moment we had bad moments, but listen in football, in sport, you have that period, so I often said, you can't win all the matches you are,” he said.
“You can't always win because it's just impossible. So I never expect that when we won the Premier League in the last season, we won the next 10 years.
“So many things have happened. What happened last season does not mean that it will happen next season. Hopefully next season will not happen like this season. Of course we have to change things, certainly. But next season will be better.”
And while Guardiola said that he and his players will give everything in the last eight games of the campaign to qualify for the Champions League of next season – City is currently in fifth place, what the things would be enough to see them ahead in the European Premier Club competition – he is also not to make it the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end, also.
“How many important clubs in the last three, four or five years have not played in the Champions League and yet they are there? The club will find a solution,” he said. 'Of course we want to be there. But in case it is not going to happen, what is it? We can't just stop and complain all the time.
“Of course it is in hand. We have eight games. So we are going for it. We are the only club in the last 15 years, every season has been in the Champions League. That is consistency. That is the club, how well we did it. And we want to continue that way.
“The club will not die. In terms of what we have to do for next season, there are. But of course we have our derby on Sunday. And after seven more games left and four at home, three away. All difficult. I don't deny it because they are good.”
Guardiola, however, thinks that he has seen enough on Sunday of the last two wins of City in Bournemouth in the FA Cup Quarterfinales on Sunday and at home in Leicester City in the competition on Wednesday to really believe that his side is back.
“In the last two games I saw something that I like,” he added. “I remember a few things we saw in the past. And this is what we have to build from there.”
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