Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola admits he has had a "really poor" performance this season. City, who have won four successive Premier League titles, are languishing in fifth in the Premier League, 22 points behind leaders Liverpool, while they were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League by Real Madrid at the competition's last-16 stage. City take on Bournemouth in the FA Cup quarter-final.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola believes he should have done "much better" this season, describing his own performance as "really poor".
Having won four successive Premier League titles, City are currently languishing in fifth, a point behind the guaranteed UEFA Champions League places, but 22 adrift of league leaders Liverpool.
The 54-year-old responded, "This season?," when questioned about his own performance this year. Really poor.
"The opponents never gave us a red carpet to win the titles that we won in the past. My duty was to overcome the situation much better than I have done [this season]."
Crediting the dismal campaign to "a few details", Guardiola added: "Hopefully this will not happen next season. This is important."
City would make a seventh consecutive FA Cup semi-final with victory over Bournemouth at Vitality Stadium on Sunday.
However, Guardiola said that even winning the competition and qualifying for the Champions League would not make up for City’s poor Premier League campaign.
"Of course it would be nice to arrive in the final of the FA Cup and win it, and qualify for the Champions League," the Catalan boss said.
We are three games away from winning it. With a good day from our players, we can beat all the teams.
"I think we have a chance, probably not as big as City or Aston Villa, but I think we have our chance."
Guardiola expanded: ”Our standards and many things were not good. This is the reality. It is not going to change for the fact that we won one title.”
City’s manager has only ever finished one season without silverware. He continued: “We will be happy, of course, we want to do it (win the FA Cup).
“But how we behaved all of us this season is not going to change if we qualify for the Champions League. Again, I said it’s a huge success, if we win in the FA Cup it is a huge success, but the season has not been good.”
The Catalan denies that there is a lack of motivation among his players that have won so much in the past. He declare: “I’m not saying that they don’t want it, that they didn’t want it. What I’m saying is that we were not able.”
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