Pep Guardiola has said he is not treating his players more harshly than he did last season despite the team’s current run of poor form.
City have lost three of their last four matches in the Premier League and go into Sunday’s game against Southampton 10 points adrift of Liverpool following the Anfield club’s victory over Arsenal on Saturday night.
Guardiola was asked in his press conference if he’s being tougher on his players than he was last season and said: “No.
“That is not a book where I said I am going to be tougher or sweeter. It’s just your feelings. I said many times that a manager is not a book. I said that today, you have to do just what you feel. Sometimes I am so angry at losing games, or winning games, having the opposite feeling.
“It’s not just about working harder and harder, because after getting 100 points, it’s a little more complicated than that. We did well so far. We got 44 points in the first round. If you get the same number of points in the second round, that’s 88 points. With 88 points, you are champions.
“You have the numbers to be champions. Most of the Premier League champions in the past 20 years won it with less points. We did quite well. We did really well. But of course you have the past two games, against Crystal Palace and Leicester, and you have that sense, because there are two teams there now who are better than us in the last month.
“What can we say when Liverpool keep nine clean sheets and score a lot of goals? We cannot compete with that in terms of comparing with them.
“So we look at ourselves, and tomorrow against Southampton, we have to do what we do, and try to win, and when that happens, everything comes back to a normal position.”