Guardiola seeks more consistency from Manchester City next season

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said the individual achievements of his players must be viewed in relation to the team’s success and consistency after Raheem Sterling’s brace sealed a 4-0 Premier League win over Watford on Tuesday.

City forward Sterling’s first-half goals took his league tally to 19 goals for the season, but Guardiola reminded his players that they were 15 points behind champions Liverpool having played one match less.

“It’s important for Raheem to score goals but we cannot forget we finished a long way off the champions. This is not good for us,” Guardiola told reporters.

“Of course, we’ve been much better than the other 18 teams. The distance from second to first is big, the distance between second and third is big too, but it’s not enough.

“The personal achievements must always be related to the achievements of the team, which has not been perfect.”

The result meant that Guardiola’s side have won four league games in a row for the first time this season and the Spaniard said his team had to be more consistent to challenge for the title in the 2020-21 campaign.

“We all still need to know we’re far away from Liverpool. This was the first time we’ve managed to win four in a row in the league. Two seasons ago, we managed 18, last season we managed 14,” Guardiola added.

“This shows how poor the consistency has been this season because we’ve had the same team. This happened because something was wrong and I need to discover what it was ahead of next season.”

City finish their campaign with a home match against relegated Norwich City on Sunday.

Reuters