Pep Guardiola breaks silence on Manchester City’s poor form

Manchester City’s head coach, Pep Guardiola, has broken the silence on his team’s recent outing, saying the current reality is exaggerated.

Guardiola has never gone five league games without a win in his career and will have to fight against that becoming a reality as they face Luton on Saturday.

City earlier lost 1-0 against Aston Villa on Wednesday as the defending champions failed to produce the performance that earned them the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League.

Commenting on the performance of his team, Guardiola said “When you are winning you are the best in the world – not winning it’s a crisis,” he said.

“It’s always exaggerated.”

Speaking on Friday, he alluded to some of his players having enjoyed life like a pampered pet.

“For a long time, we’ve lived like a cat and known how good we are,” he said.

Guardiola, however, hinted that the current performance may give the club the rare opportunity to understand a way out of the poor run of form.

“See how difficult what we have done is, and what will be?” he said. “The bad results help you to understand it.

“It’s not about complacency. Complacency is about arriving late to training, not training good, not doing a good job.

“But the fans and the media say ‘Oh my God, they lose’. Four games without winning. It can be five, six. It can happen.

“But look at the next three [in the table]. How the teams do more and more, year by year. I see the hunger in the opponents. I see it.

“The players have to realise that it’s not my words that can help, or our accomplishments. It’s them on the pitch to say, ‘Oh my god, the opponents are much better’.

“After that we can make a step forward. It’s the only way.”

Speaking on England midfielder Kalvin Phillips,  a £45m signing from Leeds who is yet to feature for the club this season, he said, “I feel so sorry for my decisions for him.”

“He doesn’t deserve not to get minutes.

“I am asking for good personality, good character, thinking about the end. This is a perfect example. After that I have to give him something and I didn’t do that.

“It’s just because I visualise the team and struggle a little bit to see him, that’s all.”