Pep Guardiola has every reason to be distraught after Manchester City suffered a 2-0 defeat against Juventus in the Champions League.
Goals from Dusan Vlahovic and Weston McKennie meant Manchester City failed to bounce back from their recent 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace.
In the process, Pep Guardiola and his troops now have just one win in their last 10 games in all competitions.
The Premier League winners sit in 22nd place in the Champions League table on a mere eight points from their six matches.
It seems highly unlikely that City will be able to gain automatic qualification as one of the eight teams into the Round of 16, even if they defeat Paris Saint-Germain and Club Brugge in their final two games of the league phase.
After all, all the teams who are currently placed from first to eighth have at least 13 points with two games to spare, while the Sky Blues would reach a maximum of 14 if they won their next two games.
Jamie Carragher compared Pep Guardiola’s ongoing struggles at Manchester City to those of Jurgen Klopp’s at Liverpool in the 2022/2023 season when his side finished in fifth place in the league.
Pep Guardiola told he is suffering Jurgen Klopp’s ’22/23 Liverpool season
Carragher elaborated on CBS Sports: “I think what this has proven is, still, the best coach in the world for me hasn’t got the answers for it and what this proves is this is not a tactical problem really and players in a certain position, the legs go and no matter who you are as the manager, you can’t fix that.”
“And it reminds me a little bit of Liverpool two years ago when Liverpool had [Jordan] Henderson and Fabinho in midfield and Liverpool that season finished outside the Champions League, they finished fifth.”
“It just reminds me so much of Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola, we’ve said so much over the last five or six years, going head-to-head as maybe the two top managers in world football alongside [Carlo] Ancelotti.”
Jamie Carragher feels Pep Guardiola will be hoping he can add fresh faces to Manchester City’s squad in January, like Jurgen Klopp did at Liverpool by signing Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai and Wataru Endo but in the summer of 2023.
City have several ageing players at their disposal as well, such as Kyle Walker (34), Ilkay Gundogan (34), Kevin De Bruyne (33) and Bernardo Silva (30).
“And Jurgen Klopp couldn’t fix that when maybe the players’ legs had gone in midfield and he had to wait until the summer to fix it. And I think Pep, he’ll hopefully try and fix that in January from his point of view but it may take until the end of the season.”
“That’s why I think they’ve got a real fight on their hands to be in the competition next season.”
Jamie Carragher says Man City are in a “massive crisis”
Jamie Carragher’s claim about Manchester City is that they are in a “massive crisis.”
“You can’t believe what you’re seeing. This is a massive crisis. This was a crisis two or three weeks ago. The greatest manager, the most successful manager possibly of all time, he’s got no answers for it right now. He hasn’t!”
“He’s tried different things, different systems, and players in different positions… a manager as great as him is really, really struggling and finding it tough. And he has never gone through this before, so he’s got no experience of this situation. He has got nothing to fall back on and really look up at, because he has been so successful in the past.”
The popular pundit concluded: Yeah, I think it’s a real eye-opener. And I think there are a lot of coaches around the world looking at Pep with a wry smile, not enjoying what he’s going through, but just thinking: ‘Finally Pep Guardiola is going through something we’ve all been through at some stage in our career.’
Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City side will be hoping to disprove Jamie Carragher in the Manchester Derby on Sunday with a statement win.
However, as things stand, it would come as no surprise if City drop more points.
But with the contest being at the Etihad Stadium, logic would dictate that the Sky Blues could have reserved a vintage display for Ruben Amorim’s side.
It would take a brave man to bet on this Manchester City side to get over the line currently.
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