'Amazing' - Pep Guardiola blown away by Liverpool star he thinks might be playing out of position

City have lost six of their past seven games - and four successive top-flight defeats - having hit a malaise no-one could have predicted. But Guardiola, who has guided the Etihad Stadium side to the past four titles - believes that his troops will remedy their concerning form. “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.”

City have have a number of injury issues this season. They are struggling in midfield without Rodri, who is sidelined with an ACL issue until the end of the campaign, while Mateo Kovacic also missed out against Liverpool. It meant Bernardo Silva operated as City’s deep-lying player in the engine room while Manuel Akanji was tasked with stepping out of defence.

Guardiola praised the pair but admitted that Liverpool had too much in that area - including the ‘amazing’ Ryan Gravenberch. He added: “I just say thank you to Bernano, to Manu, to Rico [Lewis] for playing in a position they’re not used to. To fight against Gravenberch. Gravenberch is a No.10, how the first control is amazing enough to attack to the next line of [Alexis] Mac Allister - an experienced player - of [Dominik] Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, and all of the players they have.

“We make an incredible effort, they did it. It was an incredible effort. Manu playing with Rodri or Kova is different than playing with Bernado. Bernando likes playing in the positions between but I know he fights. They make an incredible effort to come back. Kevin, the rhythm was much better than in recent games, Jack in the middle I thought can help us to have that control and vision into the final third. As much as our weeks go through and we can win games, our physical condition will be better and we’ll be a better team. Hopefully, that can happen.”