Pep Guardiola wished the assembled media a happy new year at the start of his post-match press conference and extended the seasonal goodwill message to their families when he left the Anfield stage. It was a nice touch by the Manchester City manager but the niceties were part of a performance better than that produced by his team at Liverpool and exposed by an angry, exasperated exchange with Txiki Begiristain shortly afterwards. There was no goodwill to be found in defeat by Jürgen Klopp and falling 10 points adrift of Chelsea, the leaders.
Press duties completed, Guardiola headed back to the makeshift dressing rooms in the bowels of Anfield’s new main stand where he met Begiristain, City’s director of football and a man with some serious questions to answer over the club’s expensive and erratic recruitment drive. Guardiola, pacing up and down, scratched his head, pulled at his tie and began punching his fist into the palm of his hand as he dissected City’s display with his former Barcelona colleague. They have trailed and recovered before but that was at a club attuned to Guardiola’s methods and vice-versa. A revealing glimpse into genuine frustration and the performance that provoked it were reminders of how much work is required to recreate that understanding at the Etihad Stadium.
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