Monday 16 January 2017 14:10, UK
Pep Guardiola is facing a real crisis at Manchester City, according to former defender Danny Mills.
Guardiola suffered his heaviest league defeat as a manager on Sunday as City lost 4-0 at Everton, and the Spaniard admitted afterwards his side's 10-point gap to Premier League leaders Chelsea may be too big to overcome in the title race.
Mills, who made over 50 appearances for City, believes the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager is frustrated that his possession-based style of play has failed to make an impact at the Etihad.
"Just look at Pep Guardiola's body language after the game. He is clearly very frustrated," Mills told Premier League Daily.
"He doesn't have the players to play the way that he wants to. He is in a real crisis point at the moment.
"He doesn't want to change his philosophy or his principles about the way that he plays but realises that the players that he has got can't do that. It's a real crossroads for Pep."
Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring at Goodison Park in the 34th minute before Kevin Mirallas doubled Everton's lead two minutes after half-time.
Local lad Tom Davies netted a deserved third 11 minutes from time, before a stoppage-time debut strike from Ademola Lookman ensured City’s miserable record on Merseyside, where they have won just five times in their last 40 Premier League matches, continued.
The defeat was City's fifth in the league this season and left them fifth in the table, two points outside the top four, and Mills says they have it all to do if they are to win a third title in five seasons.
"It's not the end, but it's going to be very, very difficult," added the former England international. "I certainly wouldn't be putting any money on them.
"It's not impossible, we've seen similar gaps overhauled before, but they would probably have to go from now until the end of the season unbeaten if they are to stand any sort of chance."
He added: "Their defence is all over the shop. It's never a flat back four or flat back three. He needs to sort that out."
Mills also believes that Guardiola does not have the players at his disposal at City to match the feats he achieved at Barcelona and Bayern.
"When he was at Barcelona he had world-class superstars," said Mills. "He had world-class players in every single position and a bench full of them as well. He went to Bayern Munich and had exactly the same thing.
"They [Bayern Munich] won the treble the year before he went there, that's how good they were. Manchester City haven't been 'great' for two of three seasons.
"This could be the first time that Pep doesn't make the Champions League and he was brought in to win it. Not qualifying would be an absolute disaster for Manchester City."
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