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Pep Guardiola said he is questioning himself as Manchester City manager after his team’s nightmare run extended to a seventh defeat in 10 games as goals from Dusan Vlahovic and Weston McKennie sealed a 2-0 Champions League victory for Juventus in Turin.
City travel to Paris Saint-Germain on matchday seven next month knowing that a defeat could send them into the bottom eight of the Champions League table and leave the club facing the humiliation of crashing out of the competition before the knockout stages.
Against a Juventus side that had won just one of its previous six games in all competitions, City struggled to create the chances to win, and with neighbours Manchester United next up at the Etihad in the Premier League on Sunday, Guardiola said he is beginning to question himself as his side lurch from one defeat to another.
“Of course [I am questioning myself]. I have my thoughts,” Guardiola said. “I’m stable in good moments and bad moments. I try to find a way to do it. I’m incredibly honest. If we play good, we play good.
“The dressing room is stable. Win we are happy, lose we are not. What can we do? Feel sorry for ourselves. No, we improve it and go forward.
“We have been in this situation this month many times. Tomorrow recover, prepare for United with our people, insist in the good things we do and try to be better.”
Despite the form slump, which is by far the worst of his managerial career, Guardiola said that he was not facing his biggest challenge.
“My biggest challenge is to get results to continue to work in the first seasons [at Barcelona]. It’s life, it happens, sometimes you have a bad period. I’m going to insist until we’re there,” the Catalan coach said.
City midfielder Ilkay Gündogan said that “confidence is a big part” of the team’s struggles and added that “it’s a mental issue as well.” But Guardiola rejected Gundogan’s assessment and said that his team can still qualify for the next stage by avoiding defeat in Paris.
“I am not agreeing with Ilkay,” Guardiola said. “Of course it is tough, except one or two games in this period that were not good, the rest we were played good.
“We were incredibly aggressive in our high pressing. It is a cross [for the first goal] and [Dusan] Vlahovic is strong in this position.
“I don’t think it was defensive mistakes. We miss the last pass, not arrive in the six-yard box and have the composure and made the moment and assist, but we are the best. I love my team.
“[Qualification] is the target, We need one point, three points. Go to Paris to try to do it and then the last game is at home.”