Pep Guardiola: I’m used to receiving criticism

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola insists he is no stranger to criticism despite seven seasons of success as a manager with Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

Guardiola came under fire for his tactics following City’s emphatic 4-2 defeat to Leicester City at the weekend, but he said he knew it would be tough to be successful playing his way in the Premier League.

The Spaniard — who won two Champions Leagues and six league titles across his time in charge of Barca and Bayern — has reiterated he will not change his style and remains confident that he can turn around his side’s slump.

“I believe a lot in what I did in the past and I know I can do it here,” he told a news conference ahead of City’s Premier League clash with Watford on Wednesday. “If we didn’t feel that I would not have accepted to come here.

“I played many times against English teams like Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United. I came here realising the way I would like to play and how difficult it always was to compete against them. I knew that but that’s why I decided to come here. I achieved what I achieved because I’m a fighter and I like these kind of things.

“When I started in Barcelona we didn’t win at first, and the people who criticised me, you can’t imagine what they said. In Bayern Munich when I didn’t win the Champions League and they expected to win it and we arrived at the semifinals but no more, so I knew that.

“When I arrived here I didn’t expect the English media to be sweet with me when I didn’t win. With the results in the last month-and-a-half I expect that.”

City have not won any of their last four Premier League games at the Etihad Stadium ahead of the visit of Watford and have kept just one clean sheet at home in the league all season.

Guardiola’s defence were again badly exposed by Leicester on Saturday but the City boss says he is confident that they can rediscover their form, which saw them win their opening 10 games of the season.

“They did it for 10 games, the players want to do that,” he added. “I am pretty sure they suffer. They want to play good. I was a player, I know how they feel after four minutes [conceding] two goals. My job is to help them.”