Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is facing a lot of the stick for the way his side are playing at the moment. We say playing, but really it is down to their defending that they have suffered a very poor month with has seen most critics and pundits point fingers and ask questions as to the style with which City are operating.
Stan Collymore was particularly critical in his Daily Mirror column on Monday, as he claimed that Pep would be back to Spain with his tail between his legs in no time if he didn't change his thinking.
I’ve never suggested Pep Guardiola is not a good manager - he obviously is.
But if he thinks he’s going to turn up and outplay everybody in the Premier League and that teams like Watford, Leicester, Bournemouth, Southampton and Crystal Palace are going to let his Manchester City side have the ball for 90 per cent of the time and pass pretty patterns around them so they can get a result, then he is absolutely deluded.
In fact, he is beyond deluded. And if he thinks he doesn’t need to teach tackling or one-on-one combat in training then he’ll be going back to Spain with his tail between his legs.
This idea was put to Guardiola for comment at his press conference ahead of Manchester City's clash with Watford on Wednesday night, but the Spaniard was in no mood to discuss it, simply because he has absolutely no idea who Stan Collymore is.
His reaction was fantastic, and it produced laughter from all in attendance, surely a blow to the ego of the former Aston Villa and Liverpool striker.
Well that settles that then, he's not bothered.
About Collymore, that is, as Guardiola did address the criticisms leveled at him for pretty much the entirety of the press conference, and he handled them well.
Guardiola's methods are extreme, so there was always going to be a period of adjustment for the players, many of whom will be dropped as soon as a replacement more suited to the system is found.
It seems very harsh to be so critical of him so early in his Premier League career, but that comes with the territory. You can watch the press conference in full below.
