Pep Guardiola insists he will do what he can to raise spirits in the Manchester City squad ahead of their daunting trip to Liverpool on Sunday.
City are battered and bruised and badly out of form heading to Anfield, following up five straight defeats with a 15-minute collapse against Feyenoord in the Champions League on Tuesday to draw 3-3.
Defeat at Liverpool would put City 11 points behind the leaders in the Premier League and in serious trouble in the title race, and Guardiola admits his side remain ‘fragile’ mentally.
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Explaining his plan to get his downbeat side up for the Liverpool contest, Guardiola said: “What can you do? Rest one or two days and prepare for Anfield. We have to [raise the players], we have to. That is my job. We play a good game but we need to do it and were not able to control the last minutes.
“Now we didn’t talk absolutely in the moment. Everybody knows the situation, I don’t have to add absolutely anything. We are going to train tomorrow, recovery and prepare the next game. Have a day off and we have two or three days to prepare and go for it.
“We will learn for the future and what has been has been. It will be a tough season for us and we have to accept it for many circumstances. Today unfortunately the game was well done and we couldn’t punish them in the right moment. The team was so committed in many many things but unfortunately in the moment something happens and we are not strong enough. We have to try and avoid those mistakes.”
He added: “We do everything and then we give, away especially the first one, after we are not stable enough to do it. It’s not about no run or no commitment, but football you have to be [switched on] in certain moments to do it.”
