Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola admits he ‘doesn't know’ how to stop Liverpool

Guardiola has scanned statistics which place City first for shot creation and allowing opponents the fewest chances against them as part of his search to understand why they are 11 points behind league leaders Liverpool

Pep Guardiola's champions are 11 points behind Liverpool (Getty )

Pep Guardiola’s trusted lieutenant and close friend, Manuel Estiarte, has often related how the Manchester City manager can be involved in a conversation only for his mind to teleport somewhere else.

The words fade as he tunes out and transitions deep into analysis, trying to crack some conundrum or concoct new combination play.

At the top table ahead of Saturday’s Manchester derby, Guardiola had one of those moments.

“Sorry, I wasn’t listening. I was thinking about something else,” the City manager said, before politely asking the journalist to repeat his question.

Estiarte and the rest of Guardiola’s inner circle do not mind when the manager drifts, because his thoughts predominantly translate into solutions that lead to silverware.

There is, however, one matter that has so far stumped the 48-year-old this season.

Guardiola has scanned statistics which place City first for shot creation and allowing opponents the fewest chances against them as part of his search to understand why they are 11 points behind league leaders Liverpool.

The defending champions have already lost three games this season – a figure which stood at zero after 15 matchweeks in their previous two benchmark-setting campaigns.

It is Jürgen Klopp’s side who now possess an unblemished record and Guardiola admitted he hasn’t been able to work out why exactly City are so distant from the pacesetters.

“It’s a difficult answer,” the manager said on Friday. “I don’t know. I would like to discover the reason for this big gap with Liverpool. One is, no doubt, the quality of the opponent. I repeat, one lost league game in almost 60 – their numbers are incredible.”

City are not just straggling behind Liverpool, but their own relentless standards. They have scored two less and conceded 10 more than at the same stage last season, when they were nine points better off. In comparison to 2017-18, their incredible 100-mark achievement, they are 11 points off their own pace.

Guardiola admitted he had forecast a testing few months after the effort required to post a combined 198 haul in the previous two campaigns.

“I expected that at the beginning of the season after back-to-back titles,” he offered. “Against Norwich – and respect to what Norwich have done – I tried to see how the team played and I’m satisfied when I review all the games. Even against Norwich, we created 20 shots.

“I know the stats, we are the best team by far at creating chances and the best team by far at conceding few. Much better than the opponents, but we are 11 points behind. So something has happened. Sometimes, it’s just human. We can do better.

“We try to improve the next game. For example, in the last game [the 4-1 win at Burnley], we scored an incredible four goals. But sometimes we miss goals from 1m and in the last game we shot in the corner from Gabriel [Jesus], two from out of the box from Riyad [Mahrez] and Rodri, and so sometimes it’s difficult to find an explanation.

“But that’s the truth – we’re 11 points behind. There’s something we missed and, honestly, I don’t know.”

Guardiola is guided by feeling and the feedback he offers his squad is fed by that. “I try to tell them what I see the position of the team is,” he said.

“I don’t tell them what your opinion is, or the opinion of my mum and dad, or brother about how the team is. I follow what I feel. I see the team in the training sessions and the position in the table – if we do well or badly, I look for what the reason is. Whether we are better than people believe, that is the question of feeling. Every time I have that feeling, I tell them.

“Whether people agree with me, I don’t know. But it’s how I feel.”

Raheem Sterling, meanwhile, has admitted City are now in the position of crossing fingers that Liverpool start ceding points as fixture congestion strikes.

“We just need to keep winning games and hope they lose some,” he said of his former club.

“It’s as simple as that. They’re playing some good football at the moment, but it’s a long season. We have got to keep winning, keep believing. Football is a funny game and in one moment it can change.

“You have to be ready. At the moment, they’re leading and we just have to keep working and keep winning.”