ETIHAD STADIUM, MANCHESTER — Pep Guardiola insisted that right now he is “not good enough” after Manchester City’s dismal run hit a new low in a 2-1 derby defeat to Manchester United.
City have now lost eight of their past 11 games, winning once in that period. They were minutes away from adding a much-needed three points as they led 1-0 through Josko Gvardiol’s 36th-minute header.
But an error from Matheus Nunes led to the makeshift full-back fouling Amad Diallo to give away a penalty that Bruno Fernandes dispatched two minutes from time before Amad scored a superb 90th-minute winner as City’s backline imploded.
Guardiola has won six of the past seven Premier League titles and 15 major honours overall in a historic tenure at Eastlands. In November, he penned a two-year contract extension but now faces the most sustained crisis of his coaching career.
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Ballon d’Or winner Rodri is expected to be out for the season following ACL surgery, while injuries to key defenders Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake and John Stones have compromised City over recent weeks. Kevin De Bruyne is struggling for form after two months on the sidelines and the PFA and FWA Player of the Year Phil Foden has been hit by injuries and illness this term.
Nevertheless, Guardiola insists the buck stops with him and starkly admitted afterwards that he is failing to come up with solutions to City’s staggering malaise.
“Listen, in the past maybe I could presume we could win with two minutes left but in the situation that we’re in I never thought about that,” he said.
“It’s true that we are not fluid. We are a team who always played with this composure that now we don’t have, the amount of games losing. Sometimes the spirit and the strength helps you to find the game in this type of game today.
“We were there but this situation has happened many times. I don’t have a defence — I’m the boss, I’m the manager. I have to find a solution and I don;t find a solution.
“This is a big club. At a big club when you lose eight out of 11, something wrong has happened. I can say the schedule is tough, we have injured players but we were 3-0 up against Feyenoord in the 75th minute and we drew the game. Do you think that is the injuries or the schedule? No, we have to win that game. Today we have to win that game.
“Even if you don’t play good — I know when the players play good — the pressure and the tension in that situation we give away again. What do we have to do? Keep working. But I am the boss, the manager and I’m not good enough. It’s as simple as that.
“I have to find a way to talk to them, to train them, the way we have to play, the way we have to press, the way we have to build up. And I’m not good enough, that is the truth. It’s happened, it’s football and we have to move forward.”
Guardiola added: There were many period here when we were not playing good but we were able to get it. Now, for the situation in some moments, we cannot knock the feeling that with one mistake and one action we are going to concede a goal.
“Eight defeats out of 11. There’s no defence [for that]. I can make a thousand million arguments, but we have to find a way like we did in the past. Now we are not.”
