Defiant Guardiola believes City have the passion to take fight to Liverpool
PEP Guardiola pointed to the number of trophies his City players have won when asked for their motivation and hunger to topple Liverpool.
Thursday’s defeat to Chelsea confirmed that the Blues have been dethroned as Premier League champions after becoming the first side in a decade to win back-toback titles, with the gulf in points between the sides suggesting that Jurgen Klopp’s side are very much in the ascendancy.
Guardiola had indicated that Liverpool
perhaps had more passion for the league title as they hunted their first title in 30 years, proving to be stronger than expected and setting a pace that the champions were unable to match once they had suffered early setbacks.
However, the City boss defended his players as they plan to improve and challenge again for next season and brought up their extraordinary domestic record since the beginning of the 2017 season that saw them go more than two years without any team claiming a major English honour.
“I don’t know the passion of Liverpool,
I guess. I imagine what happens when you are three-zero years without winning the Premier League, after winning the Champions League you are focused,” he said.
“But a team that wins eight titles out of the last 10 have passion for every single competition. It is so difficult to do what we have done in the most difficult league in the world – but you cannot win all the time.
“We arrived after four titles maybe thinking ‘Ok, we have more time’ but remember the way we dropped points in the second game in the league against Tottenham it was many, many, many things in the beginning when we dropped points when it was a little bit tricky – and Liverpool didn’t make a mistake.
“It wasn’t the perfect season for us after what happened in the previous two seasons but there are teams that are worse than us and one team was exceptional. We can say learn from them and congratulate them but this team has the desire to keep going otherwise it would not be possible to do what we have done in the previous seasons.” Guardiola also reiterated plans to lead City’s challenge next season.
The manager is regularly linked away from the Etihad despite a contract running until 2021, but while he was reticent to talk about events too far in the future he did speak about his intention for the following campaign.
“I am incredibly excited for this part of the season and the next one, and after we will see,” he said. “I’m incredibly satisfied to be in this club, and try to do our best, and I don’t want to think too far ahead, I just think of the short time. Now it is about Sunday.
“I want the players to recover because the last 15-20 minutes were so demanding 10 against 11. “We have a tough game against Newcastle – and that’s what I have to be focused on.”
A team that wins eight titles out of last ten have passion for every competition
Pep Guardiola