Football
Jonathan Smith, Manchester City correspondent 7y

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola: I'm not immune from being fired

MANCHESTER -- Pep Guardiola says there is no reason why he cannot be sacked if he fails as Manchester City manager.

The City boss has seen his side slip to fourth in the Premier League -- seven points behind leaders Chelsea -- after taking just 12 points from their last nine games.

Guardiola remains confident that he can turn around the slump but says if he does not, there is no reason why he could not face being fired like any other manager.

"Long-term projects don't exist in football. You have to win immediately, if you don't win you will be in trouble," Guardiola told a news conference ahead of City's game with Watford on Wednesday.

"When you don't win there are many reasons -- maybe the opponent is better. Always when you make mistakes you have to minimise the mistakes to win the games. I believe in that. I believe in what I like to play. If I am not able to do that, the boss and the chairman are going to decide."

Guardiola insists he has no intention of changing his playing style despite the way his side were picked apart by Leicester City on Saturday in a 4-2 defeat at the King Power Stadium.

And he says his players need only look back to the 3-1 defeat to Chelsea earlier this month for the last time his side played well -- when Kevin De Bruyne missed a great chance to double City's lead before the Blues went on to turn the game around.

"I want us to play like we did against Chelsea, which is not a long time ago," Guardiola said. "I saw the game again and we didn't deserve what happened. Football is like that.

"Kevin was one metre from the goal, and to score the goal in that moment, or for Sergio to shoot when there was no goalkeeper, at that moment we would be top of the league. Now we are seven points down. Sometimes these things happen in football but you have to improve because we have made a lot of mistakes in situations.

"I have to discover how I can help my players, because they don't want to make mistakes. The players suffer the same as me and the staff and the people. You have to minimise that because it's tough for us."

City defender Nicolas Otamendi will be available to face Watford after he served a one-match suspension in the defeat to Leicester, while Yaya Toure is in the squad after he appeared in court on Monday charged with drink-driving.

Guardiola has warned that Watford will be ready to pounce on the lack of confidence in his squad.

"They can play five or four at the back, they have three strikers I like, they are really good on set pieces, especially on the left side," he said. "They are confident, they won at home against many good teams."

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