Guardiola loses his cool after another Manchester City red card

Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City are being harshly treated by officials and admits he has taken time to adapt to the style of football in the Premier League.

Guardiola was in a tetchy mood despite City’s 2-1 victory over Burnley on Monday as he vented his frustrations over the first half dismissal of Brazilian midfielder Fernandinho.

It was Fernandinho’s third red card in six weeks and City’s seventh in 30 games this season, but Guardiola reacted sarcastically to being questioned over whether his side had a disciplinary problem.

“Yes, from the team with the most ball possession. Yeah, yeah, yeah,” said Guardiola.

“We had a lot of disciplinary problems. Now we expect what the FA decide.

“We try to play football, don’t forget it. My teams always in my career try to play football. I cannot control the other circumstances.”

To compound Guardiola’s bad mood, he felt that Burnley’s goal from Ben Mee should have been disallowed for a foul on City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo as he issued another sarcastic reply to a question about Fernandinho’s red card.

“It is always our fault, it’s always City’s fault,” he snapped. “Yeah, yeah. I saw other games. All around the world, the Burnley goal on Claudio Bravo is a foul.

“Here, and all around the world, the rules say the goalkeeper in the six yard box cannot be touched. He goes here and the striker does this (slaps his arm).

“But I saw (Marteen) Stekelenburg Everton v Middlesbrough at the beginning of the season and it was the same, it was a goal.

“Okay, so I have to adapt and I have to understand there are special rules here in England. Now I learn, so now we’re going to play.

“I saw the foul for Claudio Bravo, that was definite.”

– Sarcastic –
Burnley manager Sean Dyche, whose side was undone by goals from Gael Clichy and substitute Sergio Aguero, believed that City should have finished the game with nine men after Bacary Sagna was booked for kicking out at George Boyd as the winger tried to retrieve the ball to speed up kick-off following the visitors’ goal.

“It’s a tough one but it’s a sending off because he swipes out at Boydie,” said Dyche.

“He was trying to get the ball back and go to the centre circle.

“The linesman was a long way from it and the referee was running back towards the centre so maybe the linesman saw enough to give a yellow but not enough to understand it’s a kick out.”

Fernandinho now faces a four-game suspension, starting with Friday’s FA Cup visit to West Ham, and with German international Ilkay Gundogan ruled out by long-term injury, City are short on numbers in midfield.

The City manager also seemed dissatisfied with his own supporters at the start of the second half, gesturing for them to give his team increased support as they sought a badly-needed victory.

“We need their support. These players deserve their support,” said Guardiola.

“We are going to try and play as best as possible but we need their support.”

Earlier, however, the City manager had been even more sarcastic and confrontational in an interview with a BBC reporter when asked whether he thought Fernandinho had deserved his red card.

“You’re the journalist not me. Ask the referee not me,” he said.

“We’ll accept. The team with more ball possession, we have always sendings-off.

“I have to understand the rules here in England. I know you are specialist and I have to understand that.”

Jurgen Klopp jokes that Pep Guardiola was at Anfield to 'watch good football'

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, center, and Sunderland Moyes in attendance at Liverpool's Tuesday match against Stoke City.

Jurgen Klopp jokingly suggested that Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola attended his Liverpool team's 4-1 win against Stoke City to "watch good football."

Asked in his post-match news conference about the Spaniard's attendance, Klopp said: "I respect them a lot, but I have not been to City's stadium this season or last to watch games. Maybe they want to watch good football."

Stoke  were the better side early on and went ahead through Jon Walters, but Adam Lallana and Roberto Firmino scored before half-time before Giannelli Imbula's own goal and Daniel Sturridge's first in the Premier League this season 56 seconds after coming off the bench wrapped things up.

The win puts Liverpool in second place in the Premier League -- one point ahead of their Saturday rivals Man City -- while both teams try to make up ground on table-toppers Chelsea during the busy festive season.

Klopp added: "We are already looking forward [to Man City]. It's a difficult game for both teams, but an exciting one. The best news for us is that it's at Anfield.

"They're an outstanding side, we are not too bad. It'll be a nice game.

"Whatever I say tonight, we cannot win it tonight. But maybe I could say a few things that make it more difficult for us. It's probably best I shut my mouth.''

Earlier in December, Klopp took his Liverpool side to watch Barcelona in action against Borussia Monchengladbach in Champions League group play.

The statistics suggest that Pep Guardiola has never faced a greater challenge than with Manchester City in the Premier League

The statistics suggest that Pep Guardiola has never faced a greater challenge than with Manchester City in the Premier League

"I hear a lot of times about the intensity of the Premier League, when none of you have been in La Liga or the Bundesliga to know how it is," Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola said after the 1-1 draw with Everton in October.

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager continually insists that City is not the hardest job he has ever had in football. But that draw with Everton was near the start of a run that has seen his side pick up just 12 points from their past nine games to leave them trailing leaders Chelsea by seven points.

Since Champions League progression was secured with a 1-1 draw at Borussia Monchengladbach last month, City have pieced together a scrappy 2-1 win at newly promoted Burnley, been beaten 3-1 at home by Chelsea and been embarrassed 4-2 at Leicester City, who had won just one of their nine previous matches.

Here are some statistics to suggest that Guardiola never had it as tough in his previous jobs, despite his insistence that his time in Spain and Germany was just as hard.

Worse start to a season

Guardiola has never had a worse start to a league campaign. City have taken 30 points from their first 15 games. His previous worst tally at this stage was in his final season at Barcelona, when he had 34 points. Never in his previous seven seasons of management had his side lost three games after just 15 games. On four occasions his team had lost once; three times they were still unbeaten.

Coming from behind

In five of his previous seven seasons of management, Guardiola's side were top of the table at this stage and were destined to remain there for the rest of the season. In 2009-10, Barcelona led after 15 matches but were briefly knocked off the top by Manuel Pellegrini's Real Madrid before going on to win the title. Two seasons later, Jose Mourinho's Madrid won La Liga -- the only time Guardiola has not finished top. He has never been lower than second at this stage.

Clean sheets

"After four minutes 2-0 against a team, it was complicated," Guardiola said after the humbling 4-2 defeat to Leicester on Saturday. His side have kept just two clean sheets this season, which is in stark contrast to his times at Barca and Bayern. His previous worst record for clean sheets from the first 15 games was in his first season at the Nou Camp, when Barca didn't concede in seven of their opening matches. In his second season at Bayern, they managed 12 clean sheets from their first 15 games; indeed they only conceded 18 goals that entire season -- one fewer than City have let in already this campaign.

Winning record

Guardiola's winning record in the Premier League stands at 53.33 percent, which is way down on his 76.32 percent average with Barcelona and 80.39 percent with Bayern. But it's not just in the Premier League where he is having problems. City's fourth-round exit from the EFL Cup was only the second time he had exited a cup competition before the semifinals as a manager -- the previous time was the defeat to Sevilla in the Copa del Rey round of 16 in 2010. In the Champions League, it was the first time a Guardiola side had not finished top of their group and just the second time they won only three of their six group games.

Discipline problems

Players being sent off and suspended has been a bigger problem at the Etihad than at any other time in Guardiola's managerial career. City have had five players sent off this season in all competitions, while Sergio Aguero was also given a retrospective red card for an elbow on West Ham defender Winston Reid. In his entire three years at Bayern, they only picked up seven red cards; while his worst season for discipline at Barcelona, in 2008-09, they had seven players sent off from 62 games. Guardiola can also ill afford to have Aguero banned for seven games. Before he began his latest suspension against Leicester, he had scored exactly a third of City's Premier League goals: 10 of 30.

Goalkeeping concerns

Much has been made of the decision to sign Claudio Bravo for his footballing skills, but his goalkeeping is not what Guardiola is used to. The Chile international has conceded 21 goals this season and made just 35 saves, giving him a save percentage of 62.5 percent. At Bayern, Germany keeper Manuel Neuer averaged a save percentage of 79.6 in his final season; his worst season, in 2014-15, included an average of 74.4 percent. Even in Guardiola's final season at the Camp Nou, when Victor Valdes conceded 39 goals, his save percentage was 67.8.

Goal ratio

"In all those three games, we were much, much better than our opponents. Now we have to talk and analyse, and it is a problem in the box, but we will improve," Guardiola said after the 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough on Nov. 5 -- a third successive home draw at the Etihad. The statistics concur they have a problem, with City creating 296 chances this season for their 52 goals, at an average of a goal every 5.7 chances. That's worse than any season, apart from his last with Bayern -- 6.3 chances per goal -- but he at least had the consolation of seeing his side creating more chances than any other campaign and scoring 122 goals

Arsene Wenger defends Guardiola's criticisim

Pep Guardiola's team lost 4-2 to Leicester at the weekend.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has defended Manchester City counterpart Pep Guardiola after his defensive tactics were questioned following a 4-2 loss to Leicester, saying criticism of the Spaniard has been "unfair."

Guardiola was criticised by pundits for dismissing the importance of tackling after his side fell to a second straight league defeat following a 3-1 loss to Chelsea the previous weekend.

"I'm not a coach for the tackles, so I don't train the tackles," Guardiola said after the Leicester game.

But Wenger said the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach should be applauded for his attack-minded style of play, and that his record proves his teams know how to defend.

"Pep Guardiola, like myself, we are for offensive football. And when you don't win, people question that. And that's as simple as that," Wenger said ahead of Arsenal's trip to Everton on Tuesday. "Overall, I think what he wanted to say is that he promotes a game that is positive and I agree with him on that. You respect him for that. I believe that he doesn't forbid his players to tackle.

It's true that in the trainings you focus on your players to play an offensive game. You look at the number of games he has lost in his career, you would think that he defends quite well. For me it's a bit the wrong debate. His teams usually defend well."

Defending champions Leicester have struggled badly to repeat their heroics of last season's stunning title charge, but looked back to their best against City as they took a 2-0 lead after five minutes and were 4-0 up by the 78th when Jamie Vardy completed a hat trick.

And Wenger pointed out that the strong start by Leicester didn't leave Man City much of a choice other than to expose themselves defensively for the rest of the game.

"I come back to one simple fact in that game. When you're 2-0 down away from home, against a team that is good on the counter-attack, you know you have have to come out like mad to come back," Wenger said.

"And you expose yourself on counter-attacks. What was the strength of Leicester last season? It was that. So they were in a position where they are at their strength after five minutes. Then you can criticise what you want. I believe it's unfair because they had to come out and they had to take the risk to be exposed on counter-attacks."

Wenger's own team have often been criticised in recent years for conceding too many goals on counter-attacks, but this season they've been a lot more successful when they're chasing a deficit. The Gunners have fallen behind in six games in the Premier League and Champions League, but finished those games with three wins and three draws.

One of those was Saturday's 3-1 home win over Stoke, but Wenger admitted that the Gunners have often had small margins on their side -- such as when Petr Cech made a good save to deny a Peter Crouch header when the score was still 2-1 against Stoke.

"I look at the history of the games, there are always turning points that have gone for us. It's never one-way traffic. Even on Saturday it could have been 2-2," Wenger said. "We manage to get the turning points on our side. I'm conscious that it's very tight. But I'm conscious as well that there is a resilience in the squad, because it's not a coincidence, six times."

Man United can still reach top four but 'long distance' from title - Guardiola

Pep Guardiola's Manchester City side beat Mourinho's United 2-1 at Old Trafford back in September.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola believes local rivals Manchester United can still challenge for a Champions League qualification spot this season but added that Jose Mourinho's side are a "long distance" off the title pace.

United are currently nine points off fourth-placed City in the Premier League table following Sunday's 1-1 draw at Everton, which maintained the club's worst ever start to a Premier League campaign.

Mourinho's side are 13 points behind leaders Chelsea, who won 3-1 at City on Saturday to avoid being overtaken at the top by their hosts.

Guardiola said that, while he thought resurrecting their title hopes would be difficult, United could still challenge for a return to the Champions League next year after missing out on this season's competition.

"I saw the games against Stoke and Burnley, and other ones at Old Trafford," Guardiola told his prematch news conference ahead of Tuesday's Champions League match at Celtic.

"They deserved by far to win the games but football is like this. United have the quality, the history, the manager and the players to be there.

"Of course, 13 points is a long distance, especially when one team is winning games with the quality of Chelsea. So it is not easy. But to be in the first four? Of course."

City have already ensured their progress into the round of 16 in Europe, qualifying as runners-up in their group behind Barcelona.

Manchester City's Sergio Aguero backs Pep Guardiola's decision to drop him

Sergio Aguero says Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was right to drop him after he returned from the last international break not feeling right.

The Argentina international striker admitted he felt like a "bad player" after he missed a penalty in his country's 1-0 defeat to Paraguay in a World Cup qualifier in October.

Aguero played in the game despite suffering a calf injury four days before the game, but was left on the bench when he returned to Manchester City for their games against Everton and Barcelona.

It prompted suggestions that his future at the club could be in doubt but the 28-year-old insisted it was the right decision.

"Being there, the mind is always different, you are thinking of something else," he told Argentine newspaper Ole.

"I arrived at Manchester and I wasn't well so I didn't start against Everton. Pep and I talked about it, that when you come with something in your head, it influences you in the game.

"In the end I came on and I missed the penalty again. It was a week to forget. But luckily afterwards everything changed. I could reverse it."

Aguero has missed four penalties this season for club and country but Guardiola said he wouldn't take him off penalty duty.

And the striker says he will continue to take spot-kicks although teammate Lionel Messi will be the first choice penalty-taker for Argentina's game with Brazil on Thursday.

"No, if I have to take it, I'm going to take it," he added. "Now Leo is with us. But if it's my turn to do so, I will face it. If I didn't do it out of fear, I'd be a coward."

Argentina are currently outside the qualification places for Russia 2018 ahead of their game against Brazil in Belo Horizonte.

Claudio Ranieri, Zinedine Zidane among nominees for FIFA coach award

Leicester City's Claudio Ranieri, Portugal's Fernando Santos and Real Madrid's Zinedine Zidane are set to be among the frontrunners for the Best FIFA Men's Coach 2016 award after being named on a 10-man shortlist.

Barcelona's Luis Enrique, Atletico Madrid's Diego Simeone, Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp, Tottenham's Mauricio Pochettino and former Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola, now with Manchester City, are also nominated.

Wales coach Chris Coleman is also a contender after leading the nation to the semifinals at Euro 2016, while France boss Didier Deschamps, who led the host nation to the final, completes the shortlist.

However, Santos will be a strong contender after Portugal won the European Championship for the first time in their history, while Zidane led Real Madrid to Champions League glory after taking over from Rafa Benitez in January.

Ranieri, though, defied odds of 5,000-1 to lead Leicester to the Premier League title last season and has overseen a strong start to the club's first ever Champions League campaign this season.

FIFA recently announced that the will be based on the votes of captains and head coaches of national teams around the globe and an online public ballot with football fans and submissions from a selected group of over 200 media representatives.

Best FIFA Men's Coach 2016

Chris Coleman (Wales/Welsh national team), Didier Deschamps (France/French national team), Pep Guardiola (Spain/FC Bayern Munich/Manchester City), Jurgen Klopp (Germany/Liverpool), Luis Enrique (Spain/FC Barcelona), Mauricio Pochettino (Argentina/Tottenham Hotspur), Claudio Ranieri (Italy/Leicester City), Fernando Santos (Portugal/Portuguese national team), Diego Pablo Simeone (Argentina/Atletico Madrid), Zinedine Zidane (France/Real Madrid).

Pep Guardiola: ‘We will improve’ as Manchester City reach six games without win

Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola is mired in the worst run of his managerial career but is confident the Premier League leaders have the quality to bring an end to, and avoid a repeat of, their current six-game winless streak.

City started the season by winning their first 10 games in all competitions but the momentum has stalled in recent weeks, and Wednesday’s 1-0 loss to Manchester United marked their sixth straight game without a victory.

"We will improve. Sometimes it happens in football that the managers don’t win," Guardiola told British media, adding that he had never been through such a run as a manager. "It is the first time ... and hopefully it does not happen again.

"But it is part of our profession, sometimes you win and sometimes lose. I have learned in all the 16 games.

"Every team has streaks of good results and bad results. The strange thing is after seven years as a manager, it happens now."

Guardiola also said Vincent Kompany was withdrawn at half-time on Wednesday due to fatigue, not a new injury.

"He told us he is tired and not ready to play the second half," said Guardiola, adding that it was a positive step that the injury-plagued central defender was getting game time and not breaking down again.

City, who have seen their lead at the top of the Premier League evaporate and are ahead of Arsenal and Liverpool only on goal difference, travel to face 13th-placed West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.

*Reuters