Guardiola asks for patience from fans
london — Pep Guardiola advised Manchester City’s supporters it will take up to three years for his methods to fully bear fruit after his side lost 2-0 at Tottenham Hotspur.
City had avoided defeat in the first 11 games of Guardiola’s tenure as manager, but they were given a rude awakening at White Hart Lane on Sunday as Spurs trimmed their Premier League lead to a single point.
Guardiola declared Spurs potential champions afterwards, but emphasised — as he had prior to the game — that his team are at a different stage in their development to Mauricio Pochettino’s side.
Asked if Spurs were title contenders, Guardiola replied: “They were last season. Why not? The same trainer, new players. In two, three years, my team will be better.
“In that sense it’s normal. In the Premier League there are many teams who can achieve that and Tottenham are one of them.”
He added: “They were the better team. It can happen sometimes.
“We play against one team that has been together the last two or three years, who last season were fighting until the end to win the Premier League.”
Guardiola, who had seen his team win the first six league games under his stewardship, acknowledged that City had been unable to live with Spurs’ asphyxiating high press.
“We knew how aggressive they are, home and away, but especially at home,” said the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach.
“Of course it was difficult because we had problems to find the guys when we want to find them and control our game. We lost a lot of balls in positions that were so, so dangerous.”