Pep Guardiola issues emotional insight into personal life and ‘loneliness’ after Manchester City defeats | OneFootball

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has issued an insight into what life is like in his private settings after defeats experienced during his time at the Etihad Stadium.

The comments from the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich tactician are especially prevalent given Manchester City’s ongoing struggles across competitions, having won just one of their last nine matches.

A seven-game winless streak was briefly followed up by a return to winning form as City defeated Nottingham Forest by a comfortable 3-0 scoreline in the Premier League, only to drop further points in a 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace.

Now, as City once again battle a hugely challenging fixture run this week and across the coming months, Guardiola has spoken of the difficulties behind-closed-doors when it comes to handling defeats and poor form as manager.

Speaking to Dani Garcia on his Desmontadito YouTube channel, Pep Guardiola insisted that the challenge of coping with defeats can be a personal struggle, and one that extends into his private life and sleeping quarters.

“The starting point with coping with the problems of defeat would be being with people, your family basically. But no-one can really console the loneliness of the football manager,” admitted the Manchester City manager.

The 53-year-old continued, as translated and relayed by The Mirror, “You have people beside you but the bad decisions, why have I done that, it’s gone wrong because I did this, I didn’t push them enough… the pain of the defeat, you feel it alone.

“You might have friends around you, but when you close that bedroom door and turn off the light there’s no consolation. You have to let one or two days pass and then start again.”

Guardiola continued by detailing the importance of golf in both his personal and professional life, insisting that his matchday preparations and tactical masterplans are thought up over a bottle of wine.

“Golf helps me. One of the best therapies I have is when the Augusta Masters or one of the major tournaments comes round from Thursday to Sunday and I prepare my matches at home or here in Tast,” he continued.

“I look at our opponent and the images I want to take but always with the golf on in the background. A bottle of wine, a glass of wine, work and hearing: ‘Now so and so, Tiger Woods for instance, is going to tee off’, look at the shot, and then get back to what I was doing, and then the same again.

“Working like that I think makes me a better manager.”

Manchester City travel to Turin on Tuesday evening ahead of their matchday six Champions League clash with Juventus 24 hours later, before returning to England to focus attentions on the Manchester derby meeting with Ruben Amorim’s United on Sunday.