Pep Guardiola admits Manchester City’s rivals will be laughing at their form

Pep Guardiola accepts that Premier League rivals will be amused by Manchester City’s poor run of form in which the champions lost five matches in succession in all competitions as his side travel to Liverpool amid their worst spell under the Spaniard.

City ended that series of defeats with a calamitous collapse against Feyenoord in midweek when they gave up a three-goal lead in the final 20 minutes to draw their Champions League game. They head to Anfield, having won there only three times since 1956, eight points behind the league leaders.

Asked if he thinks other teams are enjoying City’s recent shortcomings, Guardiola said: “As is normal in sport, they take the piss and they laugh at your defeats. That’s normal. At least there’s respect. There’s no violence and this kind of stuff. It is part of how nice football is that people can laugh at you when it’s not going well.”

The absence of the injured Ballon d’Or winner Rodri has been a key factor in City’s failure to win since defeating bottom-placed Southampton on 26 October, and Guardiola has spent weeks trying to turn things around and lift the mood. “I don’t enjoy it all, I don’t like it,” he said.

“I don’t sleep as good as when I won every game. I’m the same person as four Premier Leagues in a row and in that situation, I have the same doubts. Now I want to be closer to the players, because I know they are suffering, I know they are thinking: ‘Oh God, how we were not able to win that game against Feyenoord?’ Or: ‘Why don’t we score when we had the chance to score against Spurs?’ They are suffering. What can I do, blame them? Absolutely not.”

Guardiola recently signed a two‑year contract extension that will run until the end of 2026-27, which if fulfilled would mean 11 complete seasons at City. His previous longest spell at a single club was four seasons managing Barcelona. “If I extend, it’s because I feel it,” Guardiola said. “I’m not sitting here just for what I’ve done, it’s because I’m happy and still I want to try. I don’t want to stay in the place where I feel I’m a problem. I don’t want to stay because the contract is there. My chairman knows it. And I said to him: ‘Give me the chance to try to come back and especially when everybody comes back [from injury] and see what happens.’”