Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has warned his squad that talk of another Premier League title is pointless unless they repair the recurring weaknesses that continue to surface in matches.
Although the Sky Blues produced an eye-catching comeback to win at Anfield and remain six points adrift of Arsenal, the Spaniard made it clear that the result should not disguise deeper concerns about the team’s performances, particularly after the interval.
For long periods on Merseyside, City displayed the control and technical quality that have defined Guardiola’s reign.
Yet, as has happened repeatedly this season, their level dipped sharply in the second half and they were punished when Dominik Szoboszlai struck a fierce effort to put Liverpool ahead.
Only a late rally spared City from another damaging setback. Guardiola admitted he was pleased with the resilience shown, but insisted that relief must not be mistaken for progress.
The City boss believes the side are falling into a pattern of starting brightly and then losing their grip on games. He wants his players to focus less on the mathematics of the title race and more on the basic habits that have deserted them.
The victory at Anfield, he suggested, was valuable but fragile evidence that improvement is possible.
“I understand your question. Every time in the last weeks when I go before the game in flash interviews always is you lose you’re losing everything and going to disappear from planet Earth,” he said according to Manchester Evening News
“What I’m saying is what do we have to do to beat Fulham? What do we have to do to make the second half closer to the first? What is the reason why in the second half we are still dropping our performances?
“If we don’t improve that, we will not win – maybe if not against Fulham, against Newcastle or the next.
“I understand how nice three points or nine points and this kind of stuff is, but it doesn’t make for winning titles or arriving at the latter stages to be close to fighting for titles.”
Second-half slumps worry Guardiola
City’s campaign has been marked by uncharacteristic inconsistency. After Christmas they appeared to be building momentum with eight successive victories in all competitions, a sequence that briefly suggested another relentless charge was under way.
However, a series of uneven displays followed and the familiar aura of inevitability has been missing.
Guardiola has grown used to his teams finding an extra gear in the spring months, overwhelming rivals with long winning runs.
This group, however, has not yet shown the same ability to dominate opponents for 90 minutes. The manager believes the problem is not tactical imagination but concentration and game management.
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“When we have 60 or 70 per cent of new players, we don’t have what we had in the past,” he said.
“After the second or third season we had done it, we are able to do it but now we have to prove it. I don’t know if we are able to win three, four, five, six games in a row. I don’t know. I don’t know.
“We drew at Spurs and all the comments after that second half at Spurs. It was not two months ago, it was days ago.
“They have done really good things. I have the feeling for many many months but not consistent enough to control many aspects to win the games.
“We equalised the [Liverpool] game with a deflected cross from Rayan Cherki, and goes to the head of Erling and intelligent run from there. From a deflection.
“And we saved with an incredible save from Gigio from a deflection. That is football. And that intervenes. But when we are a champion team, even in deflections you control the other aspects that don’t make the deflections the key points to win the game. And still we are in that phase.”
