Manchester City

Pep Guardiola: 'I will never change my style of play'

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 13 December 2016

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola defends the style of play adopted at the Etihad Stadium, claiming that he will stick with things until his players get it right.

Pep Guardiola has insisted that he has no intention of going back to basics and will instead stick with his favoured style of play, as Manchester City aim to recover from their stuttering spell of form.

The Citizens have won just four of their last 15 matches following on from an impressive 10-game winning run to kick off the season, including back-to-back defeats against Chelsea and Leicester City.

Saturday evening's 4-2 loss to champions Leicester, which saw Guardiola's men fall three goals down inside the opening 20 minutes, led to particular criticism as City - with just one clean sheet in their last 17 outings - made a string of errors at the back.

Guardiola is refusing to alter things ahead of the visit of Watford on Wednesday evening, however, vowing to instead try his best to iron out the errors as best he can in the coming weeks.

"We are going to play the way I feel; making mistakes and improving the mistakes," he told reporters. "I cannot do something I don't feel. You have to win immediately. If you don't win, you will be in trouble and when you don't win, there are many reasons. Maybe it is because the opponent is better but you improve what you are not doing properly. You have to minimise your mistakes to win the games.

"I believe in that, I believe in what I like to play so I am sorry. If I am not able to do that, the boss, the chairman is going to decide. Against Chelsea, we didn't deserve what happened but football is sometimes like that and you have to improve. I have to discover how I can help my players.

"That is my job. Of course, I have to adapt but does that mean change the way you believe in football? What am I going to do? The players don't want to make mistakes. They suffer the same as me, the staff. The reason I am here is to help them. I am thinking about what I have to do to help them without changing."

City, who are not likely to make any new signings in January, also face Arsenal and Liverpool prior to the New Year.