Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has backed rivals United to return to glory days as the Old Trafford club continues to struggle in the league this season.
United currently sit in the 5th position in the log with 31 points, a massive 27 points off runaway league leaders Liverpool. Pressure has been mounting on coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to be fired by the club hierarchy.
City face their struggling arch-rivals in a Carabao Cup first leg semifinal match at Old Trafford on Tuesday night and ahead of the showdown, Guardiola backed the club to be successful once again. He said the struggle period will soon be over and that the club will be back in contention for titles.
“I have incredible respect for this club and sooner or later they will be back and fighting for the Premier League title. In these periods they struggle, there is not a team that wins, wins, wins. It happened with Sir Alex Ferguson and they’ll be back, I’m sure,” he said.
On the match against United, the Spanish tactician downplayed the importance of beating their arch-rivals saying he solely focused on winning the Carabo Cup title.
“I didn’t come here to just beat United that was not the target, it was to play good and to try to win the title,” he added.