Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola asks for patience from the club’s owners before Liverpool clash on Sunday.
Who: Liverpool vs Manchester City
What: English Premier League football
Where: Anfield, Liverpool, United Kingdom
When: 4pm (16:00 GMT) on Sunday
How to follow: Al Jazeera Sport will have all the build-up and full text commentary of the game.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has urged the Abu Dhabi hierarchy to give him the chance to revive his faltering team amid its staggering run of poor results, saying on Friday he will not “run away” from the challenge.
City lost five games in a row before squandering a three-goal lead from the 75th minute to draw 3-3 with Feyenoord in the Champions League on Tuesday.
The longest winless streak in Guardiola’s coaching career could be extended on Sunday when City plays away to Liverpool, who are in first place in the Premier League and the Champions League.
“I ask for that challenge. I ask for this opportunity to do it. Because I feel it. I know what I want to do. I know what we need. I know what we have to do,” Guardiola said.
“For sure, I want to stay here, I want to do it, but the moment I feel I’m not positive for the club, another one will come. But I want the opportunity to try. I don’t want to run away. I want to be there. I want to rebuild the team.
“It’s not normal in the big clubs to have the results we have had, but what we have to do is accept it. ”
Guardiola, who has won the Premier League six times in his eight full seasons with City, as well as the club’s first Champions League title, said he is in regular communication with chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak.
“He knows we are going to find a solution,” Guardiola said. “In the circumstances that it doesn’t happen, the club will take the solution, the decision, it has to take.”
The Spanish coach said he deserved to be given time to turn things around. “I have it all on my shoulders. I want it,” he said. “Here at the football club you have to win — if you don’t win, you’ll be in trouble. I know that.
“People said, ‘Oh, why is Pep not in trouble? Why is he not sacked?’ What we have done the last eight years is why we have this margin.”
Guardiola played down talk of a “crisis” at City when asked by a reporter, but was unsure when the team would start winning again. After Liverpool, City plays seventh-place Nottingham Forest on Wednesday.
“We will be back — I know that,” Guardiola said. “I don’t know when, that is the truth.
“We have to accept,” he added, “that it is completely normal — maybe the exception was in the past, not what happened now. How we stand up again, this is the big success in life. It’s how many times you stand up, again, and again, and again, whatever happens. They are the greatest [people].”
Liverpool continued their incredible start to life under Arne Slot with a 2-0 win over Real Madrid on Wednesday to move back to the top of the Champions League table.
The Reds are also streaking clear at the top of the Premier League, eight points ahead of City, who are suffering from the loss of Ballon d’Or winner Rodri to a season-ending knee injury.
Slot is confident Guardiola will turn their fortunes around, but is hoping it will not come in time for the top-of-the-table clash.
“One of the reasons why I think Guardiola is the best manager in the world is that he always comes up with solutions for his problems,” Slot said at his pre-match news conference on Thursday.
“His problem now might be that Rodri is out, but we all know, I think, that he will come up with a solution and the run of form will go again. Hopefully, after Sunday.
“I think he was the one who started playing the inverted full-back, then he was the one that started to play the centre-back as a number six. So I don’t think it’s a surprise for anyone if he again comes up with something no one has ever thought about before to make his team even stronger.”
Liverpool or Man City? pic.twitter.com/VpWTjemIkV
— Premier League (@premierleague) November 28, 2024
All three previous sides to enjoy at least an eight-point lead after 12 Premier League matches went on to win the title.
Liverpool have won the league just once since 1990 and have missed out twice in recent seasons to City by a single point as Guardiola’s men have racked up six of the last seven titles.
Slot refused to buy into the idea that the defending champions are there for the taking when asked if City’s slump has made Liverpool’s task easier in the title race.
“I don’t think anyone in the last eight or nine years, or maybe even longer, would have said that City, home or away, that the word ‘easy’ ever comes to mind.”
Liverpool team news
Liverpool’s latest statement win, to defeat Madrid for the first time in nine meetings, came at a cost.
Defenders Conor Bradley and Ibrahima Konate are doubtful for the weekend after suffering injuries late in the game.
“It’s never a good sign if, in Conor’s case, we had to take him off and Ibou couldn’t walk off the pitch as he should after such a fantastic game that he played,” added Slot.
However, the Dutchman confirmed Trent Alexander-Arnold would be fit enough to replace Bradley if necessary.
Manchester City team news
City could hand a start to defender Ruben Dias, who returned to the bench for Tuesday’s game.
John Stones remains a doubt having missed the Feyenoord match while Mateo Kovacic, Rodri and Oscar Bobb remain absent.
Head-to-head
This is the 197th meeting between the clubs, with Liverpool winning 93 of the encounters and City claiming the spoils on 50 occasions. While the last two matches, both in the Premier League last season, ended in draws, the Reds have not won in the last four, with City winning the two games prior to that. Their last win was at Anfield in October 2022 when Mohamed Salah scored the only goal of the game to mark the third consecutive win for his side against City, and their fifth consecutive unbeaten match between the two sides.