Pep Guardiola has told two Premier League managers he ‘wishes he had their team’ amid Manchester City’s poor season.
Far from securing a record-extending fifth successive Premier League trophy, Man City face a battle to qualify for next season’s Champions League after an alarming drop-off this season.
City have already lost six Premier League games this term – double the amount they did last season – and after just fourth in the table going into February.
Manchester City’s struggles have carried over into Europe and they are 25th out of 36 teams going into the final round of Champions League fixtures.
Failure to beat Club Brugge on Wednesday night would condemn Guardiola’s side to an embarrassing Champions League exit, while even a win will only be good enough for a play-off place.
Guardiola has cut a frustrated and rattled figure for several months now and has told at least two Premier League managers – Chelsea’s Enzo Maresca and Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola – that he ‘wishes he had their team’, according to Guillem Balague.
Speaking on The Sports Agents podcast, Spanish football expert Balague said: ‘Pep has told, that I know of, three managers he’s played against recently and he said, “I wish I had your team”.
‘The impression he’s got is he now needs that kind of energetic, dynamic, mouldable team that you see at Chelsea, Bournemouth and PSG – the three teams.’
Despite his admiration for Chelsea, Manchester City did the double over Maresca’s side, winning 2-0 at Stamford Bridge and 3-1 in last weekend’s clash at the Etihad Stadium.
City lost 2-1 to Bournemouth back in November while they threw away a two-goal lead to lose 4-2 against Paris Saint-Germain last week.
The pressure is on Manchester City ahead of their Champions League decider against Club Brugge but defender Josko Gvardiol says the ”confidence is good’ after a much-needed win over Chelsea.
‘We all need to stick together, to try and get out of this together,’ said Gvardiol. ‘We are in a good way.
‘We want to qualify for the next stage and I think our confidence is good, especially after our last home game. We’re going to have huge support from our fans so I think we’re going to be ready.’
Guardiola, meanwhile, said of Man City’s Champions League hopes: ‘The situation that we have is that we have to win the game and if not we will not continue in this competition.
‘We want to have another chance to play another two games, to have the chance of the next stages. It’s not a problem, it’s an opportunity.
‘These type of games I’ve played many times. Sooner or later you have to play them where if you win you go through and if you don’t you go out.
‘We are here for the reasons we know, that we have not been good enough, and this is a situation we have lived many times.’
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