Pep Guardiola insists that Manchester City still has a “brilliant future” despite another disappointing defeat against Liverpool.
Premier League champions in the last four seasons, City is now 20 points behind Sunday opponents at Etihad who now seem ready to steal their crown after a 2-0 victory.
A week of misery for the men of Guardiola also saw them crash from the Champions League to Real Madrid in the middle of the week, their players at the past years not reaching the high standards they have established in recent years.
And while the Catalan boss, who will stay in City for at least another season, suggested that a reconstruction is necessary for this team, he is convinced that the club is well placed to get up to Liverpool standards in the future .
Guardiola told Sky Sports: “If you lose, you have to lose the way we have lost today. I saw a lot that this club has a brilliant future with the players we have.
“Except Kevin de Bruyne and maybe Nathan Ake, all the players are so, so young. What the club then decides for the future, there is a brilliant future for this club in the coming years.
“Everyone knows that a game will be next season for older players here, but we have to build for the next step. There is a matter of time.
“Even with the amount of absence we have, we have played well. They break the lines and can break behind you.
“They really threaten, but we bring them there and all that we missed is that in the last third, it depends on the talent to dribble or shoot at the right time. From there, we build for the future.
“We are far away. We will see in the future. What we have done during the previous seasons is good, but now we are far from them. We played with a personality that was really good.
Guardiola: We played very well
City’s performance on Sunday afternoon was far from their worst this season, but never seemed likely to disturb the side of Arne Slot, who looked in control as soon as Dominik Szoboszlai doubled his advance on 37 minutes after Momahed Salah’s opening match.
Guardiola was satisfied with the performance, but said he was missing this additional level necessary to beat a Liverpool caliber team.
He added: “We played very well. Maybe we have missed more productivity in the blows, but we played against a fantastic team. Maybe at the beginning it was 50-50 and we couldn’t convert.
“The second half, they defended very deeply. We did something that we did not try for many games, which we brought them in their box and tried to beat them there.
“The tactic was to arrive in the last third and the signature and it happened a lot but we did not score. We missed the next piece a little and with crosses, it is almost impossible to do it because of their size. We could not find the next step.
