Pep Guardiola said he expected more respect at Anfield after being taunted about the sack during Manchester City’s defeat at Liverpool, with the chants prompting the goalkeeper Stefan Ortega to criticise the city as “not the best part in the UK”.
Guardiola held six fingers up to the Anfield crowd – one for each Premier League title he has won at City – in response to chants of “You’re getting sacked in the morning”, as Liverpool moved 11 points clear of the faltering champions with a 2-0 win.
It was City’s sixth defeat in a seven‑game winless run, comfortably the worst sequence of Guardiola’s illustrious managerial career, but the City manager claimed he deserved better from Liverpool due to their fierce rivalry in recent seasons.
Ortega defended his manager’s reaction, while criticising the city of Liverpool. “Someone told me before that this area is probably not the best part in the UK,” the City keeper said. “I think he reacted really well.”
Guardiola said: “I’m so proud of my six Premier Leagues against that [Liverpool] team and the previous team [under Jürgen Klopp]. I didn’t expect Anfield to start chanting at 0-2 that I would be sacked. Maybe I deserved to be sacked with our results! Maybe I’m still in the job because I won six Premier Leagues and a lot of titles.
“They want to sack me. I wish they were more kind. Why didn’t they do it at 0-1? Why didn’t they do it last season when we won the Premier League? Why do they want to sack me now? I didn’t expect that from Anfield, for other clubs like Brighton I can understand it. But for Anfield I didn’t expect this, maybe it is the respect we have. They know we have won six Premier Leagues. But it’s fine, it’s part of the game.”
Guardiola defended his team’s poor performance at Anfield, arguing his players refused to give in but admitting they created little. “I have the feeling that from here we can start to build something,” he said.
“Call me delusional but I have the feeling that from here we will start to build back to winning games and confidence. Our target cannot be talking about titles in November or December. We didn’t do that when we were top of the league. But at the same time we are still in December, not the end of the season, so many things can still happen.”
Arne Slot, the Liverpool head coach, said he has no sympathy for Guardiola’s predicament as he feels City will recover to challenge for a fifth Premier League title in succession. “You feel sympathy or empathy with managers who are in a really bad place, when they have lost many games or are down at the bottom of the league,” Slot said.
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“Pep has won so many things and shown so many times already. The league is not decided in November or December so no one has to feel sympathy or empathy for Pep. He has won so many things and will be able to bring City back.”
Slot, however, described Liverpool’s defeat of the reigning Premier League champions, and their victory against the European champions Real Madrid on Wednesday, as a statement from the title favourites.
The Liverpool head coach, who confirmed he will be without Ibrahima Konaté and Conor Bradley for several weeks, said: “Yes it was [a statement]. Playing against Real Madrid, playing against Man City, teams that have been and are so good and with managers that have won so many trophies, it is always nice to come out in both situations as a winner. But the reason these teams have won so much is they weren’t able to win once or twice, they were able to win every single three days.
“We are really happy with these two wins but we also understand if we want to achieve more than this then winning once or twice, even against these big teams, is not enough to win anything at the end of the season.”