00:00I'm at Manchester City's media centre where this afternoon Pep Guardiola held his pre-match
00:04press conference ahead of this weekend's Premier League game against Liverpool.
00:08Anfield is always a stadium that Manchester City have found difficult going to, but particularly
00:13given the current run that City are on, there's not a huge amount of confidence amongst the
00:18fan base going to Anfield this weekend.
00:20That's because City haven't won in any of their last six games in all competitions.
00:25They've lost their last three Premier League games and have actually slipped to eight points
00:29behind Liverpool in the title race.
00:31So it was no surprise really that Guardiola kind of played down talk of the title race
00:35at the moment because there's been a lot of talk of the fact that if City were to lose
00:38this weekend they would end up 11 points behind Liverpool by the end of the weekend.
00:42Could that potentially be City's title chances over?
00:45Guardiola didn't want to talk about the bigger picture stuff, was more focused on the game,
00:49but did actually say that even if City win this weekend it wouldn't necessarily result
00:53in their season being transformed because if they then follow that up by being, in his
00:57words, unstable against Nottingham Forest in midweek and dropping points there, then
01:01well what does it matter if you go to Anfield and pick up a win?
01:04So Guardiola certainly downplaying talk of title hopes at this stage, but what he did
01:08talk about in the current run of form was actually the position that he finds himself
01:12in and whether there's any uncertainty around his future as Man City boss.
01:16Of course Guardiola has done such an exceptional job here, winning four titles in a row, leading
01:21the club to the treble around 18 months ago.
01:24But of course he, in his own words, says that success has perhaps given him a little
01:30bit of buffer from perhaps even talk of him being moved on as manager.
01:34Personally I think it's a little bit of mind games from Guardiola or trying to stoke up
01:41a couple of headlines really, but there's no chance certainly a week on from him signing
01:46a contract extension at the club that he's going to move on.
01:48But he did say that he will be in trouble if the current run of form continues and did
01:52even say that the club hierarchy could have a decision to make if this run of form continues.
01:57I don't know.
01:58I don't buy it really.
01:59But he certainly wants to prove himself.
02:01That was something that he said in today's press conference.
02:03It certainly seems motivated to turn this round and said that he wants to be given that
02:06he has signed on to continue in this job for that challenge of rebuilding this squad and
02:11going again and trying to get City once again challenging at the top of the tree.
02:16He did talk about the consistency as well of this team.
02:18I mean, I mentioned that the number of titles, but said basically wants to try and get back
02:22to that level of consistency and he didn't offer any team news out of the trip to Anfield
02:26said that they're in training later this afternoon and they'll have to see then and he did touch
02:30on of course Liverpool away has been in the past and obviously there have been a couple
02:34of incidents with the fans and obviously very famously that the boss was attacked a few
02:38years ago.
02:39Guardiola certainly downplaying that said that's not an issue ahead of this game said
02:43that that was a number of years ago that incident and it's not something he's thinking about
02:46or is concerned ahead of this game this weekend at Anfield, but certainly a big match one
02:51that City I think realistically need to avoid defeat in given where they're at at the moment.
02:56I think they probably would take a draw in the current run of form with a couple of players
02:59out but certainly Guardiola stoking up the I suppose the intensity and the media spotlight
03:06ahead of this game with his comments about possibly whether he could potentially even
03:10at one stage lose his job over the current run of form.
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