Liverpool v Man City: Pre-match briefing

ManchesterWorld

Michael Plant brings the latest news from Pep Guardiola's press conference ahead of the trip to Anfield, with the Manchester City boss even discussing the possibility of him being sacked amid the team's current run of form.

Transcript

00:00I'm at Manchester City's media centre where this afternoon Pep Guardiola held his pre-match

00:04press conference ahead of this weekend's Premier League game against Liverpool.

00:08Anfield is always a stadium that Manchester City have found difficult going to, but particularly

00:13given the current run that City are on, there's not a huge amount of confidence amongst the

00:18fan base going to Anfield this weekend.

00:20That's because City haven't won in any of their last six games in all competitions.

00:25They've lost their last three Premier League games and have actually slipped to eight points

00:29behind Liverpool in the title race.

00:31So it was no surprise really that Guardiola kind of played down talk of the title race

00:35at the moment because there's been a lot of talk of the fact that if City were to lose

00:38this weekend they would end up 11 points behind Liverpool by the end of the weekend.

00:42Could that potentially be City's title chances over?

00:45Guardiola didn't want to talk about the bigger picture stuff, was more focused on the game,

00:49but did actually say that even if City win this weekend it wouldn't necessarily result

00:53in their season being transformed because if they then follow that up by being, in his

00:57words, unstable against Nottingham Forest in midweek and dropping points there, then

01:01well what does it matter if you go to Anfield and pick up a win?

01:04So Guardiola certainly downplaying talk of title hopes at this stage, but what he did

01:08talk about in the current run of form was actually the position that he finds himself

01:12in and whether there's any uncertainty around his future as Man City boss.

01:16Of course Guardiola has done such an exceptional job here, winning four titles in a row, leading

01:21the club to the treble around 18 months ago.

01:24But of course he, in his own words, says that success has perhaps given him a little

01:30bit of buffer from perhaps even talk of him being moved on as manager.

01:34Personally I think it's a little bit of mind games from Guardiola or trying to stoke up

01:41a couple of headlines really, but there's no chance certainly a week on from him signing

01:46a contract extension at the club that he's going to move on.

01:48But he did say that he will be in trouble if the current run of form continues and did

01:52even say that the club hierarchy could have a decision to make if this run of form continues.

01:57I don't know.

01:58I don't buy it really.

01:59But he certainly wants to prove himself.

02:01That was something that he said in today's press conference.

02:03It certainly seems motivated to turn this round and said that he wants to be given that

02:06he has signed on to continue in this job for that challenge of rebuilding this squad and

02:11going again and trying to get City once again challenging at the top of the tree.

02:16He did talk about the consistency as well of this team.

02:18I mean, I mentioned that the number of titles, but said basically wants to try and get back

02:22to that level of consistency and he didn't offer any team news out of the trip to Anfield

02:26said that they're in training later this afternoon and they'll have to see then and he did touch

02:30on of course Liverpool away has been in the past and obviously there have been a couple

02:34of incidents with the fans and obviously very famously that the boss was attacked a few

02:38years ago.

02:39Guardiola certainly downplaying that said that's not an issue ahead of this game said

02:43that that was a number of years ago that incident and it's not something he's thinking about

02:46or is concerned ahead of this game this weekend at Anfield, but certainly a big match one

02:51that City I think realistically need to avoid defeat in given where they're at at the moment.

02:56I think they probably would take a draw in the current run of form with a couple of players

02:59out but certainly Guardiola stoking up the I suppose the intensity and the media spotlight

03:06ahead of this game with his comments about possibly whether he could potentially even

03:10at one stage lose his job over the current run of form.

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