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Pep Guardiola says he blames himself for Manchester City’s malaise and has warned his side’s victory at Leicester could be a false dawn.
City’s win over Ruud van Nistelrooy’s relegation battlers was only their second in 14 games, a run that leaves the Premier League champions in a battle for the top four. Despite being gripped by an injury crisis, Guardiola accepted culpability in a display of personal anguish before City hosted West Ham.
‘I’m incredibly honest with myself about the reasons why we’ve got here, and it’s me,’ said Guardiola. ‘It’s not the players. I blame (myself). It’s not to say, ‘Oh, how nice is Pep?’ That’s the truth.
‘I lead that group of players and I couldn’t lift them. This is the reality. There’s something I’m missing, something I’m not doing well.
‘When you lose a lot of games, there is an incredible responsibility on the manager to feel something the team needs for their confidence. And I couldn’t do it.’
Guardiola is often self-critical but has opened up about his mistakes, suggesting he has misread the dressing room at times and suggesting his messages behind the scenes have not inspired a squad that has fallen 14 points behind the leaders Liverpool.
Reinforcements would help, with City hoping to be busy in the transfer market. Atalanta’s Ederson, Frankfurt forward Omar Marmoush and Lens centre-back Abdukodir Khusanov are targets in key areas of the pitch.
But Guardiola is wary of doing business in the extremely difficult January window and seems more concerned about finding a formula to stop the slide.
‘We were the only unbeaten team in Europe and top of the League (in October),’ he added. ‘Immediately we went down. For injuries, a lot of things we’ve talked about. But even with that,
I should have found a way to get better results.
‘We have to recover our game because we were lucky in Leicester. We had spirit, running and we had desire, of course, but we have to play better.
‘I told the players several times that I know their level. We need that level and we haven’t got that level.
‘How does the team compare to the last eight years? We are not there. I don’t deny it. One result is not going to change my view on how the team is at the moment. We won one game.
‘But hopefully the results can help us with our belief and lack of feeling. Sometimes you know you need a change to lift the team.’
