Pep Guardiola finds himself in uncharted territory in his glittering coaching career. Known for always associating with success, he now faces the daunting task of bouncing back from failure. The Manchester City coach takes the most responsibility for his team’s lackluster performances this season.
When asked about his performance as a coach this season, Guardiola answered without hesitation, “It’s been very bad.”
The reigning Premier League champions started strong but faced their first defeat at the end of October, which marked the beginning of their downward spiral. Since then, they’ve been all but eliminated from the title race, sitting 22 points behind league leaders Liverpool. After 29 matches, City has only won 14 games and drawn 6, accumulating 48 points.
Guardiola, who took charge of Manchester City in 2016 after successful stints at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, has won numerous trophies, including six Premier League titles and a Champions League. However, he’s never finished a league campaign outside of the top three, and the prospect of that happening this season looms large. He can’t seem to forgive himself for this.
When asked how he would rate his performance this season, the 54-year-old coach said, “Really, it’s been very bad.”
“In the past, when we won, the opponents didn’t roll out the red carpet for us. I’ve done much better before in situations where it was my responsibility to overcome those challenges,” he added.
In a press conference ahead of the next challenge, Guardiola mentioned that there were several reasons behind the team’s poor performance this season but refrained from going into specifics. Nevertheless, he promised that City would bounce back next season.
With early exits from both the Champions League and the League Cup, the only remaining opportunity for silverware this season is the FA Cup. If City beats Bournemouth, they will reach the semi-finals for the seventh consecutive year.
The quarter-final match will take place at Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium on Sunday night, at 9:30 PM Bangladesh time.
However, Guardiola isn’t overly excited about this possibility. He believes that winning the FA Cup and securing a top-four finish to qualify for next season’s Champions League won’t erase the failures of this season.
“Of course, reaching the FA Cup final and winning it would be great, as would securing a spot in the Champions League for next season,” he said.
“It would be a huge achievement. But our performance this season has been poor, and that won’t change. The level of our play, and many things, haven’t been right this year, and that’s the reality. Winning a trophy or securing a Champions League spot won’t change that failure.”
