Pep Guardiola is now facing arguably his toughest test as Manchester City manager | OneFootball

Come the final whistle of Manchester City’s 4-nil defeat to Tottenham at the Etihad last night; you got the impression that this is fast becoming the toughest challenge in the managerial career of Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. His team just doesn’t seem capable of playing the way he demands. That has rarely been said about his all-conquering team. But lifting his team does look to be the challenge in front of the City manager going forward.

Looking at this Manchester City squad there are parallels between this team and the squad Pep Guardiola inherited during his first season in charge of the club. City’s 2016/17 squad was ageing and that’s what the current squad looks like. Guardiola has a method in which he wants his team to play, but as it stands, they just don’t look capable of playing that way. Age waits for no one, and as it stands currently, a host of Manchester City’s players look to have been caught up to by Father Time.

But snapping his team out of their current funk looks to be the biggest challenge in front of Pep Guardiola. The answers don’t jump off the page either. The January transfer window is still a month and a half away and planning for next summer won’t help right now. The challenge is there for Pep Guardiola and his team. And after seven seasons of unparalleled dominance, it does now look like the end of City’s current era is now here. That isn’t a far-fetched conclusion to draw after seeing Manchester City systematically dismantled by Ange Postecoglou’s side yesterday.

Pep Guardiola expected his team to drop off and that moment has now arrived.

Speaking after his team’s defeat Pep Guardiola admitted that the drop off of his all-conquering team had arrived. The City manager was well aware of the challenges that lie ahead of his team to snap out of their current winless run. Guardiola told the media: “We are playing a little bit in our thoughts, but it’s normal. Football is a sense of mood, and when you win a lot, it gives you the self-awareness that you can do it. And when you lose three in a row in the Premier League, that situation it’s always a little bit there. There are many things that are going to happen that we need to do to break the results as much as possible to get more positive and confident. At the same time, being here for eight years, I knew that sooner or later we would drop. Of course, we never expect to lose three Premier League games in a row. In that time we always expected a drop, but we were incredibly consistent. However, we cannot deny the reality that sometimes in football and sometimes in life it’s here.”

Pep Guardiola will be up for the fight as he navigates the tough challenge ahead.

The challenge is there for Pep Guardiola and his team. They will be looking to quickly snap out of their poor run of form against Feyenoord in the Champions League action on Tuesday evening. But building something sustainable with the cattle at his disposal is arguably the biggest challenge faced by Pep Guardiola since his first season in charge of Manchester City in 2016/17. He will be up for the fight, there is no doubt about that. But the task in front of him until January at least is a mammoth one. That usually brings the best out of Guardiola the hope is that his squad can follow him.