Pep Guardiola has denied that a key factor in Manchester City’s run of five consecutive defeats is that nine of his squad are aged 30 or older, with the manager pointing to how the same players were Premier League champions last season.
The 4-0 defeat by Tottenham on Saturday was their second loss in the sequence to Ange Postecoglou’s team, the others coming against Brighton, Sporting and Bournemouth. This is City’s poorest run under Guardiola and the worst of his 17-year coaching career.
Mateo Kovacic, Bernardo Silva, John Stones, Ederson, Stefan Ortega, Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gündogan, Kyle Walker and Scott Carson are all 30 or over. Gündogan apart, all were at City when, in May, they won the title for a record fourth time in succession.
“It depends on the performance,” Guardiola said when asked, before City host Feyenoord in the Champions League on Tuesday, whether advancing years were the prime reason for his team’s alarming drop in form. “There are players who are 30 and more than 30 who perform incredibly well. There are players who are 23 who perform not good. I don’t see the age. All teams have players with certain ages.
“The analysis from my point of view right now shows that we are not getting results is not because we have players [older than 30] because a few weeks ago they were the same age and we won the Premier League, reached the FA Cup final and were eliminated by Real Madrid in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
“I want to defend what we have done because I know these guys and I never blame one player. There are a lot of factors that make a difference. If I could say the reason why, I’d take [solve] it immediately but it is not as simple as that.”
Guardiola is refusing to be flustered. “I learn from these situations, be calm. Sometimes I shout, but the next morning with a coffee, I’m saying: ‘Why am I shouting? Stay calm.’”
De Bruyne came on after 74 minutes against Spurs as the 33-year-old playmaker continued a comeback from an abdominal problem. He is out of contract next summer and stated that Guardiola signing a two-year deal last week may make the difference when deciding his long-term future.
“It could be. It could help. Because I know what the future holds [under Guardiola],” De Bruyne said. “And I don’t have to speak to Pep about what’s happening in the future. If it would be a new coach, obviously you need to have a conversation with these people because you don’t know what they want with you.
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“Maybe I would have a conversation if I want to speak about my future with Pep because I don’t know what he thinks. And maybe he changes his mind and says: ‘Kevin, thank you. Time to leave.’ But there’s more understanding of what is happening. I know how he works, how he works with the team, how he works with the players. So that’s nothing new to me.”
“Kevin will be honest,” the manager said of his midfielder’s future. “He wants to finish here at his best. I don’t think he will be here when he believes he doesn’t feel he can be the Kevin that can produce and help the team like he has done in the last decade.”
De Bruyne stated his injury layoff from mid-September to early November was the toughest of his career. “This has been the most frustrating one because last year when I had the hamstring, I knew I’m going to be out for five, six months,” the Belgian said.
“That’s fine. But now it was, I don’t know. When it happened after Inter, I was basically testing myself to be able to play for the weekend and I wasn’t able. So I didn’t know how long it would take me to get better and in the end it’s taken me a very long time.”
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