A combination of a raft of injuries to key players alongside a sequence of frustrating defeats has made for a demanding month for the City boss and his squad.
Saturday’s 4-0 Etihad setback to Spurs marked the champions’ first Premier League home defeat in more than two years and also represented a fifth straight loss in all competitions
But asked at his post-match press conference whether in light of that frustrating run if he felt there was a degree to which the squad needed refreshing going forward, Guardiola was unequivocal in his response.
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“I trust more than ever with these players,” Pep declared.
“I think the squad, when all the squad is there, is exceptional, but the team is not ready here.
“It is a little bit the problem that we have in this period.
“But the team is really good and at the end of the season or whatever, of course, like I’m here and I want to be here, we will take the right decisions [for] what we have to do.
“I’ve been here as a football player. You have doubts.
“They want to win and they are desperate to do it well. They are not: ‘Ahh it doesn’t matter.’ Absolutely not.
“I see them every day in training sessions, how they were focused on Saturday in the locker room, in the warm-up and after the game and how they feel it.
“They want to do it well. But sometimes you have to accept it.”
Further analysing the frustrating sequence of results and the best way of getting back on track, Pep insisted the answer – as City have demonstrated so often in the past – was in facing up to the situation with rigour and resolve.
“[A run like this] It’s not like we have been in for eight years, but I said before, sooner or later it should have happened,” Guardiola added.
“I know that people go: ‘Ahh you win again and again and again.’ But you have that [the recent results] for many reasons. Little details.
“They are little, little, little things to start wrong for the beginning of the season and it was getting worse, a little worse in situations and [people] say ‘No, the squad…’.
“The squad is really good when we are all together. It’s really, really good, but unfortunately now you have to face it.
“So, I cannot say anything. So, with that situation what do you have to do?
“Keep going my friends, keep going.
“We have done it in the past in terms of being not as bad as now in terms of results, but we have done it, and we face the situation, and we move forward.”
