- Phil Foden revealed what Pep guardiola is like as a manager and on personal level
- The England international says Man City’s hungry remains despite their poor form
- This Man City team is DONE and Pep Guardiola has been sleeping on the job – LISTEN NOW to It’s All Kicking Off! New episodes every Monday and Thursday
Manchester City star Phil Foden has shed light on Pep Guardiola‘s personality in the dressing room amid the club’s poor form.
The champions are winless in six matches, with five defeats in that period across all competitions.
It’s City’s worst run of form since 2006 and the worst sequence of Guardiola’s 16-year managerial career.
Guardiola’s men travel to Anfield to take on league leaders Liverpool on Sunday, and Foden revealed what the Catalan manager is like in a football environment and on a personal level ahead of the showdown.
The England international also insisted City’s hunger still remains despite winning four consecutive Premier League titles.
‘He is fiery — at the right times,’ Foden said of Guardiola in an interview with the Times. ‘But also he has the very nice side that you don’t see as much in the documentary, as a human being. He’s caring.
‘It’s just the way we are. When we lose, we have meetings as a team, you know, “it’s not right, we need to put things right”, so it’s just our mentality.
‘I know when I look around the changing room, the mentality is right. Our hunger is still there, which is nice to see after us winning so much. It could easily not be — but the hunger is definitely still there.’
Guardiola is contracted at the Etihad until 2027 having extended his contract by two years less than a fortnight ago.
The 53-year-old maintained that he will not run away from the team’s problems while claiming that chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak will have a decision to make on his future if the slide continues.
‘People say, ‘Pep, why is he not in trouble? Why is he not sacked?’ But what we have done over the last eight years is why I have this margin,’ Guardiola said.
‘The people here rely on me. The moment I feel I am not positive for the club, another one will come. The club will take the solution, the decision they have to take.
‘But I wanted the opportunity. I wanted the opportunity to give me to try. I don’t want to run away. I want to be there.
‘I want to make a rebuild of the team in many aspects from now until the end of the season and the next season, to try to continue up there. I have to prove myself now.’
A loss at Anfield will leave City 11 point behind Liverpool and Guardiola suggested that gap could be too big to close down.
‘With the situation that we have it is not realistic to think about a big, big target,’ he added on the title race.
‘The result won’t change anything. The mood would be better but after three days against Nottingham Forest if you are not stable… you are stable when you are winning 10 or 12 games in a row, like we have done as many years.
‘One game now is not going to change the feeling of how we are as a team.
‘All I would ask is not the result but the players coming back. I just ask the players back to have the team that we created at the beginning of the season to go everywhere to be who we are.
‘From the beginning of the season we could not do that. That is the situation that we had. When people ask me what I want, win games? Yeah but if we don’t have the players sooner or later we’re going to fall down again.
‘Rodri is not there. What do you have to do? Cry all the time because Rodri is not there? Or because the four central defenders have not been there for a long time in the last month.
‘I have to find a solution. I have to find a way to do it. And this is, I’m trying every day.’
