Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has insisted that his team “will be there” this season despite Liverpool taking an eight-point lead in the Premier League title race this weekend.
After Guardiola lost a fifth successive match for the first time in his career, remarkably falling 4-0 at home to Tottenham, Liverpool then won 3-2 away at Southampton. The result puts the Reds eight clear of Manchester City and nine ahead of Arsenal, who beat Nottingham Forest on Saturday.”Go on a winning run? Right now, we have to win just one,” he insisted. “And then learn from this one to get better. This is the mindset we have to have.
The most important thing right now is not tactics, it’s about desire. I have the feeling that this season we will do very, very good things. I don’t give up, and I have the feeling that we will be there.”I think we deserve some patience when we lose games. You are defending a legacy and that is so difficult to handle. If we don’t do it, try to focus on short periods of time and win the next games. What I want is commitment from players to still do what we have to do.”
Guardiola also moved to quash the theory that Erling Haaland is holding his team back. “I would say the reason for our lack of goals is not Erling,” he said. “Without Erling, we would be more in trouble! Erling will score two or three goals in one game soon, you’ll see. He always did that.
“You have to find a way. When you start to lose, I said to the people, I have to find a way! I trust my team more than ever. I’ve been here; you have doubts, want to win, they’re desperate to do well.”
Guardiola was asked about the future of Kevin De Bruyne, with the attacking midfielder, like Mohamed Salah at Liverpool, out of contract in 2025 as things stand. Negotiations are likely to take place before the campaign ends.”I don’t know,” Guardiola said. “What I know is that Kevin will decide by himself, like David Silva or others did. I’m pretty sure will be honest. He wants to finish here, or this season, or the next one, being at his best.”De Bruyne also addressed the media ahead of facing Feyenoord. He was asked about his future with the Belgian inside the final year of his contract at the Etihad Stadium.
“Last season at Man City? I don’t know!” he said. “I’ve put everything to the side whilst I was recovering! I want to get better and see how I am! The rest will come, I’m not too obsessed… I’m fine, I’m happy — in the future we’ll see! Talks will come.”
