A defiant Pep Guardiola has insisted he will “not give up” trying to turn around Manchester City’s fortunes after Boxing Day’s draw with Everton extended the champions’ poor run to one win in the past 13 games.
City are in seventh place on 28 points, 14 behind the leaders, Liverpool. Guardiola’s side again stumbled against Everton, taking the lead through Bernardo Silva before Iliman Ndiaye drew the visitors level and Erling Haaland missed a second-half penalty.
Yet the manager struck a determined note before Sunday’s trip to Leicester. “Sometimes you expect it will be earlier or easier to fix but sometimes you take more time and I will not give up,” Guardiola said. “I want to be here, I want to do it [change City’s fortunes]. Now we go to Leicester, which will be difficult. We will to try to play a good game and the players will be ready to do it.”
Guardiola is encouraged by his players’ continued application. “I see the team, the spirit, how [they] train, how focused they are,” he said. “Of course I want it [to recover their form] – everybody wants it. I don’t want to disappoint my people, in terms of the club, the fans or the people who love this club but we give them these [poor] results.”
Guardiola is being driven by the same energy that fuelled him as a player with Barcelona and through a hugely successful coaching career, having led Barça and Bayern Munich to many titles. “Since the arrival of my career as a football player and as a manager I want to try my best,” he said. “Every one of us in our job want to please the people, want to do well in our jobs. That is undeniable, not a question mark, I would say.”
Guardiola referred to his successes with City, which include claiming the past four Premier League titles, which is a record. “The greatest tests I have [already] done,” he said. “So we will come back sooner or later. But that makes me remember how good the past was – that’s the truth. It made me realise now what we have done because sometimes we had injuries [in previous seasons], yet in how many years we were so incredibly consistent?
“You expect to be a little bit down [lose form]. We didn’t expect as much [as this]: the main reason is having seven or eight important players injured. After [playing] every three days is more difficult.”
Guardiola is without Rodri for the whole season, Oscar Bobb also for the long term, and Jack Grealish, Rúben Dias, John Stones, Ederson and Matheus Nunes at present. Against Everton, Kyle Walker was missing because of illness.
Guardiola said he will not speak to Haaland regarding the penalty miss. “No. I congratulated the team. I said again: ‘It was well played, guys’. So the only chance we have is to continue, recover, and prepare well for the trip to Leicester.
“I don’t have in my education to start complaining, to point at people. It’s life, it’s football, it’s try again – try it again. That’s why we had success because always it was not enough. That’s why we won a lot of titles.”
