Many an adjective has been applied to Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Manchester City over the years. Chaotic, it is safe to say, has not been one of them. Until Kevin De Bruyne started recounting the scenes around the Etihad Campus of late.
“I would say it’s been a bit chaotic,” said the vice-captain. “I’ve seen so many people pass around the medical area: sports science, who’s playing, who’s not playing. There’s been people who shouldn’t be playing but they did anyway, even with an injury.” There have been people who have played badly. The names and faces have been the same but they have not been City; not as we have known them. Lacking control, losing when they used to win, being on the receiving end of 4-1 and 4-0 scorelines.
They are no strangers to 100 per cent records. Now they have the wrong sort: five defeats in their last five games. It is safe to say Guardiola will not win November’s manager-of-the-month award; not when he is the lone manager without a Premier League point in it. City’s last chance of salvaging something from a dreadful month comes against Feyenoord in the Champions League. “Right now, every opponent is tough for us,” shrugged Guardiola. “It doesn’t matter which we are going to play.”
This is a new experience for him. He was defiant and defensive, loyal as well as philosophical. “This too shall pass,” he said. If it will, too, and perhaps at home to Feyenoord on Tuesday, there is a broader question about whether City can recapture past glories. And that, in turn, reflects the levels they reached.
They are still, as Guardiola noted, second in the Premier League; the 2023 winners are 10th in the Champions League, although three victories from their next four European games should send them directly into the last 16.
But Guardiola conceded: “Are we ready to win the Premier League? No. We have to win one game and after win the next one.” They need that first victory before they can contemplate a lengthy winning run. For just the second time in his reign, they might not be champions. “By our standards, it will be a bad season,” said Guardiola. “We come from there [top] so we can only go down if we lose. It is nice. I think we deserve some patience when we lose games. It will not be a big mess. You are defending a legacy, tradition, success and that is so difficult to handle.”
That legacy makes City’s slide so remarkable. Guardiola seemed immune to such collapses. There were reasons to feel they may not have happened until after he left. He could have protected his own legacy by walking away; any subsequent difficulties would have been attributed to his successor. When City struggled in his debut season in England, the mitigating factor was that many of the players were not his signings, or attuned to or suitable for his methods. Now it is his seemingly superb side: until a few weeks ago, unbeaten in 32 league games, until a few days ago, undefeated in 52 home matches.
“Tell me one team in the world that cannot drop a little bit after being beyond exceptional over many years,” said Guardiola. “I want to defend what we have done because I know these guys but I never blame one player. They are not stupid, they know exactly our reality but there are a lot of minimal factors that make a difference.” He referenced injuries, missed chances, the saves of opposing goalkeepers like Tottenham’s Guglielmo Vicario. He refuted the idea his team were too old.
“A few months ago they were the same age and we won the Premier League, reached the FA Cup final and we lost the [Champions League] quarter-final against Real Madrid, performing in our best,” he said. Nor, he feels, is the slump due to a lack of effort. “It is easy to say because we lost five games. It’s easy for the manager to say the mentality isn’t there or they don’t want it, it’s because they don’t run,” he said. “I don’t believe in that.”
It is why Guardiola will not abandon the blueprint that has brought him such success. “What should I change?” he asked rhetorically. “If I should change in the first season maybe we would not win six Premier Leagues in seven years. Impossible. I am not going to change.” Instead, he will double down on his beliefs, going the full Pep. “We have to go more direct to our principles,” he said. “Don’t change much, less than ever.”
And yet he has to alter the results. “Of course, now we have to change the dynamic,” he said. But some of the underlying issues remain. “Our main player for this transition, Rodri, is not there,” he said, rationalising City’s problems when opponents counter-attack. De Bruyne argued the problems are coming in the two penalty areas. Erling Haaland’s goals have become rarer, especially in the Premier League. “Without Erling, we would be in more trouble,” said Guardiola. The striker could do with others contributing. “After Erling, Josko [Gvardiol], John [Stones] and Kova [Mateo Kovacic] are our top scorers,” Guardiola said. “That’s not normal but it is the reality.”
And the reality for City is that their recent record stands at five successive defeats. “I knew that when we lose, everything is in doubt,” added Guardiola. “We have to win games to have big compliments.” They have had plenty of them in the past. There may be more in the future.
“I have the feeling that this season we will do very good things,” Guardiola concluded. “I don’t give up and I have the feeling that we will be there.”
