Jamie Carragher says Manchester City are in a “massive crisis” and manager Pep Guardiola has “no answers” for it.
City’s terrible run continued on Wednesday night as they lost 2-0 to Juventus, a result that leaves their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League knockout stages in doubt.
Guardiola’s side have lost seven of their last 10 games in all competitions, winning just once, in what is easily the Catalan’s toughest spell in charge.
That is as many defeats as the 53-year-old had in his previous 105 games as City boss.
And pundit Carragher believes the six-time Premier League winner doesn’t have the answers to pull him out of the slump.
On what Guardiola is thinking right now, Carragher told CBS: “Why did I sign this contract?” That’s what he thinks.
“You can’t believe what you see. This is a huge crisis. This was a crisis two or three weeks ago. The greatest manager and the most successful manager probably of all time, and he has no answers for that right now. He hasn’t.
“He’s tried different things, different systems, maybe players in different positions, and a manager as great as him really struggles and finds it difficult.
“He’s never been through anything like this before, so he has no experience of this situation. He has nothing to fall back on and really look back on why he was so successful in the past. It’s a real eye opener.
“There are probably many managers around the world who look at Pep with an ironic smile. He’s not enjoying what he’s going through, he’s just thinking, “finally, Pep Guardiola is going through something we’ve all been through at some point in our careers.”
Guardiola disagrees with Gundogan
Midfielder Ilkay Gundogan said after the defeat in Torino that City’s players were suffering from a loss of confidence, which his manager disagreed with.
“I don’t agree with Ilkay,” Guardiola said. “Of course it’s difficult but, apart from one or two games in this period, we played well.”
Next up for City is the Manchester derby at the Etihad Stadium.
Gundogan said TNT Sports: “It (confidence) is a big part of it. It’s also a mental issue.
“You can see that sometimes we lose the ball or lose a duel and you see that we immediately fall and lose the rhythm. They (opponents) don’t even have to do much, but it has such an effect on us right now. They are capable of breaking our rhythm at the slightest.
“Even more you have to do the simple things as well as possible and create liquidity as well, then you have to work hard again. That’s how you regain confidence – do the small and simple things, (but) in critical moments when we always do the wrong things.”
