Pep Guardiola has vowed to hit back next season after accepting his Manchester City side have lost their edge this term. City have endured an underwhelming campaign having fallen well off the pace in the Premier League and struggled in the Champions League.
That has been hard to stomach for a team that has won 18 trophies since Guardiola took charge in 2016 but the Spaniard will fight on. Guardiola said: “We are not the best positioned in the circumstances, absolutely. I’m not stupid enough to not know what are our standards and level. Everybody knows it.
“Still, I believe they are a fantastic group of players, as we have proven in seven, eight, nine years. For two months of bad results, I’m not going to change the opinion. “But I saw it many times – three months ago, two months ago, that this season we are going to suffer, and it’s happened.
“Still, next season we’ll be back, really. “Now, take time. It’s a question of survive, qualify, fight for the title if it’s possible, otherwise accept the reality that it’s completely different than we had in the last eight or nine years. “In as much we accept it, but never forget who we are, how good we are, we will move forward.
“The normality is what we have done. That I’m pretty sure of, but this has made me realise even better now that what we have done was exceptional.”. City are in a battle both to stay in this season’s Champions League, and qualify for the competition again next time around.
