Sunday 8 January 2017 14:26, UK
Pep Guardiola admits he has made some mistakes since arriving at Manchester City but says he is adapting to English football.
City progressed into the fourth round of the FA Cup on Friday with a 5-0 win over West Ham, but are fourth in the Premier League, seven points behind leaders Chelsea, and have been criticised at times this term for spells of inconsistency.
Guardiola's side won 10 games in a row in all competitions at the start of the season but have since endured a mixed opening half of the campaign. However, the Spaniard has refused to blame his players for any negative results and says his ideas are sometimes at fault.
"We gave in the first part of the season some really, really good games and performances. But the moment we felt mistakes, especially in defence - an own-goal at White Hart Lane, our miss at Celtic in Glasgow - we lost a little of our confidence to play.
"And at times my ideas were not good, because I'm still getting to know the players, to know what is the best position, the best way to play, to adapt to them.
"Sometimes I have an idea: three at the back or play a player in a certain way, and sometimes it didn't work. And, when that happens, I never complain to the players. Because I see them training, how they suffer, and what they did in the last game against Burnley after 65, 70 minutes with 10 against 11, two days after Anfield.
"You have to look at yourself and see what you have to do to help them find each other and play to each other more fluently, not all the time with an aggressiveness. That is my job. I have to help them and I tell them that. And most of the times we were not good, it was my responsibility."
Guardiola enjoyed success during his time as a coach at Barcelona and Bayern Munich but he says he joined City to experience a different type of football.
And the 45-year-old insists he cannot change English football but believes he will be transformed as a coach for working in the Premier League.
"I'm not going to change England and I don't want to do that. Of course, it's going to change me," he said. "That's why I came here - to be changed. That is nice.
"When I do the same thing all my career, 15 or 20 years as a coach, it's boring. I would still be in Barcelona, my home and with these players I would be there.
"But every country has his own personality, his own way to play. And that is marvellous. That's why football is amazing. And, of course, I come here and I said a thousand million times, I am trying to adapt to English football in the way I believe you can do that."
