Guardiola's nightmare season: record number of defeats, goals conceded...

Pep Guardiola has his work cut out for him if he does not regret renewing his contract with Manchester City. The coach from Santpedor will be forced to completely rebuild a squad that has not worked in the 2024-25 season and in which several heavyweights have shown that their cycle had come to an end. It will therefore be the first time in his career that the Catalan will have to let several important players go in order to rebuild a team that, according to what has been seen in recent matches, has lost faith in his methods.

The statistics don't lie. With the last defeat against Liverpool, Manchester City reached 14 defeats, a negative personal record in the coach's career, who had until now a record of 12 in 2019-20 also in the English team. Only once more, in 2016-17, when he made his debut at the Etihad, did he reach ten defeats, with 10. He also drew 13 times that season, failing to win 23 games compared to the 33 in which he did manage to win. This season, the Sky Blues have already drawn 8 times, so it has 22 matches without a win and are just one stumble away from equaling the worst statistical campaign of the coach.

The Cityzens have a minimum of 13 matches and a maximum of 16 until the end of the season, although to this schedule must be added the Club World Cup in June, so the number of matches in the 2024-25 season will be higher. At the moment, Guardiola's side have conceded 62 goals and in the match at the Etihad against Liverpool (0-2) they broke the record of 2016-17, in which they had conceded 60, and are already the team with the worst defensive record in the entire career of the coach from Santpedor.

In the current context, it seems even complicated that Manchester City does not also worsen the most modest scoring record of Guardiola's career, which coincidentally is also in the 2016-17 season with 122 goals. The Mancunian side have only scored 87 this season and not even averaging 2 goals per game between now and the end of the season in their remaining games in England would not achieve it. Of course, the figure will be light years away from the 190 goals that the coach achieved with Barcelona in 2011-12 or the 169 that he has as the most prominent figure at the Etihad during the 2018-19.

The last statistical record in which the great weakness of the current Cityzen team is reflected is the points per game. Guardiola's side only averaged 1.69 in 2024-25 and had never before been below 2 points, not even in 2016-17 when they finished 15 points behind Antonio Conte's Chelsea. 2.05 was his points haul that season, 2.13 that of 2019-20, which was the next worst at City and ended with Liverpool's title, and 2.29 and 2.32 had been, respectively, the Catalan coach's most modest figures at Barcelona (2008-09) and Bayern Munich (2014-15).

Manchester City have completely missed out on the Premier League title race this season and were also eliminated in the Champions League and EFL Cup. The FA Cup is therefore the lifeline for Pep Guardiola's side who, if they can achieve catharsis with the return of Rodri, could still have a lot to say in the new-look Club World Cup. As for the cup competition, the Sky Blues will face the modest Plymouth Argyle in the round of 16, with home advantage. The other opponents for the title in the tournament will be Aston Villa, Cardiff, Crystal Palace, Milwall, Preston North End, Burnley, Bournemouth, Wolves, Newcastle, Brighton, Manchester United, Fulham, Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town.