Man City: Pep Guardiola searching for consistency as champions reach breaking point

Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial heaped more misery on City – who are now 14 points behind leaders Liverpool

Guardiola reacts as City lose at home to United (PA)

It was pointed, in the aftermath of Manchester City’s fourth Premier League defeat of the season, that Pep Guardiola could only really talk about going through the motions. It often felt like he was doing similar himself.

“We have a duty to keep fighting for the title race,” the City manager said.

It’s perhaps natural that Guardiola would be a little stilted in discussing this, because the situation is entirely unnatural to him.

The Catalan has never been close to this far behind the league leaders at this point of the season, at 14 points back from Liverpool. Then again, no one in English football history has ever overcome a gap this big.

It’s fairly daunting, but before Guardiola can even think about solving that, he has to solve a more fundamental issue in his team. He has to rediscover a bit of rigour and consistency again.

It is remarkable that this City, and this manager, have now lost 25 per cent of their league games – four out of 16.

The bare number alone used to be the supposed maximum number of defeats any champion could have, and that was in the 1990s, before clubs like City – and Liverpool – changed the parameters of what was possible and the very standards.

So far, in stark contrast to many of the pre-season predictions, only Liverpool have maintained those standards.

And it’s difficult not to wonder whether that is down to something else that has been rare in Guardiola’s career – that he’s lasted this long in a job.

If the third season is fatal for Jose Mourinho, is the fourth season similar for Guardiola? Similar principles would certainly apply, if in a slightly different way. There were certainly similar trends in his fourth season with Barcelona – the only other time he’s got past three campaigns, and the only time he didn’t win the title at Camp Nou.

Silva appears dejected as City lose at home to rivals United (Getty)

Guardiola is a famously intense and demanding manager and, as has happened with Mourinho, this team does seem to be showing signs of mental fatigue.

There’s a greater sloppiness to their game, more individual errors, and much less cohesion. They can still be supremely smooth – but only in patches.

It should of course be acknowledged there are other factors to this. There was the exhausting nature of last year’s title race, which came on the back of that centurion season. Many have said that unrelenting chase took more out of the players than many realised. To keep going to the very top level, to the very end, was a huge ask.

There are then the physical issues, to go with the mental. One is a lack of bodies due to both injuries and the fact they didn’t buy as much as they needed in the summer. Another is down to the fact that a few of the players do feel like they’re reaching the end of their cycle with this side, not quite as close to their prime as many of Liverpool’s.

But some of this was also true last season, given they spent much of the campaign with either Oleksandr Zinchenko and Fabian Delpth at left-back, and Kevin De Bruyne on the sidelines.

They were able to weather it. They were able to push themselves. Is it possible that, for a variety of factors, they’re just not able to do that to the same extent any more; that there has been an inevitable weariness with what they’re being asked to do.

That isn’t completely to do with Guardiola, as it is also human nature. Beyond Mourinho, there are examples with what happened to Jurgen Klopp at Borussia Dortmund and Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham Hotspur. It never quite happened to Sir Alex Ferguson, but only because he had the wherewithal to pre-empt it, always breaking up a team after four seasons.

Guardiola may have to think about the latter, to ward off the former, with all of that augmented by just how intense the Catalan can be.

Guardiola reacts as City lose at home to United (PA)

This is the inevitable flip side of those manic instructions at players like Raheem Sterling after games, even if the trophy wins obviously make it more than worth it.

Some sources have also questioned the “mental balance” of this squad. De Bruyne is distinctive in how focused he is.

Others have pointed to how distracted and het up players like Fernandinho, Kyle Walker and John Stones can get. Even Sterling can become too animated, as displayed at Anfield a few weeks.

It can lead to an over-exertion, that erodes some of the focus necessary for Guardiola’s football.

It is also here where his intense level of micro-management may be counter-productive.

That intensity certainly seemed to have a negative effect after the penalty, when City once again suffered a mini breakdown after a decision went against them.

That, unlike a lot with Saturday, is far from the first time that has happened.

It is only going to ratchet up the pressure on this season, especially in the Champions League.

City are going to have to get their motion back.