Jamie Carragher says Manchester City are in a “massive crisis” and managers Pep Guardiola has “no answers” for it.
City’s dreadful run of form continued on Wednesday night as they lost 2-0 to Juventus, a result which leaves their hopes of qualification to the Champions League knockout stages in doubt.
Guardiola’s side have lost seven of their last 10 games in all competitions, winning just once, in what is comfortably the Catalan’s toughest spell as a manager.
That is as many defeats as the 53-year-old suffered in his previous 105 games as City boss.
And pundit Carragher believes the six-time Premier League winner does not have the answers to lift them out of their slump.
On what Guardiola is thinking right now, Carragher told CBS: “‘Why did I sign that contract?’ That’s what he’s thinking.
“You can’t believe what you’re seeing. This is a massive crisis. This was a crisis two or three weeks ago. The greatest manager and most successful manager possibly of all time, and he’s got no answers for it right now. He hasn’t.
“He’s tried different things, different systems, maybe players in different positions, and a manager as great as him is really, really struggling and finding it tough.
“He’s never gone through this before, so he’s got no experience of this situation. He’s got nothing to fall back on and really look back at because he’s been so successful in the past. It’s a real eye-opener.
“There’s probably a lot of coaches around the world actually looking at Pep with a wry smile. Not enjoying what he’s going through, but just thinking, ‘finally, Pep Guardiola’s going through something that we’ve all been through at some stage in our career’.”
Guardiola disagrees with Gundogan
Midfielder Ilkay Gundogan said after the defeat in Turin that City’s players were suffering from a loss in confidence, which his manager disagreed with.
“I am not agreeing with Ilkay,” Guardiola said. “Of course it is tough but, except one or two games in this period, we’ve played good.”
Next up for City is the Manchester derby at the Etihad Stadium.
Gundogan told TNT Sports: “It [confidence] is a big part of it. That’s a mental issue as well.
“You can see that sometimes we miss the ball or lose a duel and you see that we drop immediately and lose the rhythm. They [the opponents] don’t even need to do much, but it has such a big effect on us right now. They are able to break our rhythm with the smallest thing.
“Even more you have to do the simple things as good as possible and create and fluidity, then it’s work hard again. This is how you get confidence back – do the small and simple things, [but] in crucial moments at the moment we are always doing the wrong things.”
