Jamie Carragher believes Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola is “unsackable” but feels he needs to “attack” the January transfer window to fix his side’s midfield problems following their slump in form.
Guardiola is on the worst run of his managerial career following five successive defeats for the Premier League champions.
Asked whether the Spaniard, who signed a two-year contract extension last week, was unsackable, Carragher told Sky Sports News: “Yes, he is. Sir Alex Ferguson was unsackable. I think Jurgen Klopp was probably unsackable at Liverpool.
Guardiola believes that their poor run of form will pass soon and that they do not need fundamental changes for things to improve
“There’s no way Manchester City would ever sack Pep Guardiola, even if he went two or three years without winning anything.
“I always felt that at Liverpool, with Jurgen Klopp. If he went two or three years without winning a trophy, we’d all still want him to be our manager, and who would you ever get who’s better than Pep Guardiola?”
Carra: City have to attack January transfer window
Saturday’s 4-0 defeat to Tottenham ended City’s 52-game unbeaten home run and was their heaviest home loss in any competition since February 2003.
Asked whether City are in crisis, Carragher replied: “No, I wouldn’t use the word crisis. They’re still second in the Premier League.
Highlights from the Premier League clash between Manchester City and Tottenham
“It’s an awful run. If it continues, I think we are talking like that, but I still think Manchester City can have a successful season.
“But the problems they’ve got in midfield, I’m not sure you can fix them with the personnel they’ve got right now. I think they would have to attack the transfer market in January, but that’s a problem for them because of the situation they find themselves in with the Premier League, and would that put players off coming in the middle of a season?
“The problems they’ve got right now in the centre of midfield are reminiscent of what Liverpool had a couple of years ago, when they had Jordan Henderson and Fabinho in that role, and the legs are just gone.
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“We did some analysis on Monday Night Football about them getting done on the counter-attack, and that’s what’s happening to Manchester City right now.”
The ex-Liverpool defender added: “I think the age profile of the midfield is a problem.
“Rodri’s won the Ballon d’Or and he’s the best in the world in that position. But his replacements – Ilkay Gundogan well into his 30s and Kovacic who has turned 30 – haven’t got great pace.
After a 4-0 loss to Tottenham, former Man City defender Micah Richards believes the issues lie deeper than just missing Rodri in midfield
“The other midfield players, more attacking midfield players, but Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, well into the 30s as well. So that’s a problem. No one can beat Father Time. As you get older, the sharpness, extra little bit of pace maybe comes away from you, and in that central midfield area, they’ve got a problem that, as we saw at Liverpool a couple of years ago, I don’t think those players can fix.
“Maybe Pep can come up with something a little bit tactical, a little bit different, which I think he did at the weekend, but it didn’t quite work.
“I think it’s new players he needs, rather than a new tactical blueprint.”
‘If City lose at Liverpool they’re out of title race’
Guardiola’s side are eight points off Premier League leaders Liverpool and face Arne Slot’s side at Anfield on Sunday, live on Sky Sports, meaning defeat to the Reds would leave them 11 points off the top.
Carragher feels it is a must-not-lose game for Guardiola’s side if they want to claim an unprecedented fifth consecutive Premier League title.
Roy Keane and Jamie Redknapp look ahead to Liverpool’s blockbuster encounter with Manchester City
Asked if City would be out of the title race if they lose at Liverpool, Carragher said: “I think they would be, yeah.
“It’s not just the points gap, it’s what we’re seeing from the team. I think what you’re seeing in midfield now with Manchester City, and it wasn’t just the weekend [against Spurs], you saw it at Bournemouth, you saw it at Brighton.
“There are 26 games left and the way Manchester City look right now, you could probably still see them losing four or five games out of those 26, really, and I think that’s a problem as well.
“It’s not just the points gap, it’s what actually points are they going to get in the second half of the season with the profile that they have in midfield.”
The 46-year-old added: “When you’re looking at City now, I do think that Liverpool and certainly Arsenal should be smelling blood in terms of, ‘we can win a title’.
“This is the team that you can’t win the title against. There’s only been Liverpool who’ve done it really since Pep got into his stride in England, and this is a big opportunity for one of those clubs.”
Carra: Pep tried to protect players against Tottenham – it didn’t work
Pep Guardiola insisted his Manchester City team must look at themselves, as well as the boss himself, for reasons why they continue to lose games following their 4-0 loss to Tottenham
Guardiola has come out fighting over whether he should try to change his style without Rodri, but Carragher’s analysis of Saturday’s drubbing by Tottenham highlighted how he has already looked to change his approach.
Carragher hit out again at City’s midfield recruitment, but pinpointed how he had attempted to adapt to protect Ilkay Gundogan and Kyle Walker in the weekend’s game – and how ineffective it had proven.
“We’re not mentioning the Brighton game or the Bournemouth game – I was looking at that [ahead of Saturday] thinking, what’s Pep going to come up with?
“We are talking about the greatest manager in the game right now, maybe the greatest manager of all time, the most successful. So if I’m thinking about what’s Pep going to do, he must be thinking about this 24/7.
“People are thinking he hasn’t tried something. He did, he tried something at the weekend and it blew up in his face a little bit. Now, what he did was, he played almost a 4-4-2 without the ball.
“Now, when have you ever seen Pep Guardiola play two full-backs on the same side? That’s something teams do when they play against Man City.
“So what’s he trying to do, who’s he trying to protect? The problems at the moment are Kyle Walker being isolated and Gundogan or Kovacic in this position getting isolated. So he’s trying to protect Kyle Walker with Rico Lewis in front of him.
Mohamed Salah still believes Manchester City are their main rivals for the Premier League title despite his Liverpool side being eight points clear of the reigning champions
“Because Son’s there, he’s a huge problem when Tottenham have got the ball. The other thing he’s trying to do is protect Gundogan is when they’re in possession.
“Then he’s asking Gvardiol to play the whole left-hand side, he’s asking Kyle Walker to play the way he did 10 years ago with Tottenham. Be the up and down, getting forward, getting crosses in.
“And the reason why he wants numbers in the middle is because we know Pep doesn’t want counter-attacks against him. So he always talks about the short passes, make passes, and if they lose it, he’ll have five men here, these three in centre midfield, and Savinho. And Gundogan does not get exposed then.
“So that was the plan. He is trying things, it’s just not working right now. And actually the plan that he had, it helped Tottenham in some ways.
“I did this analysis on Liverpool two years ago with Jordan Henderson and Fabinho. So what I’m talking about with Gundogan and Kovacic, this is not players out of form.
“This is not going to change. It’s not. Henderson and Fabinho in those positions end up moving on.
“That’s something. And Liverpool had to rebuild in midfield. So that’s what Manchester City are going to have to do. No matter what Pep thinks of, there’s not enough legs in that midfield right now to change what we’re seeing as well.”