Pep Guardiola is 'swimming for his life'! Man City boss in 'uncharted water' as champions fight to save season from hell

City's harrowing 2-1 defeat to rivals Manchester United last weekend means Guardiola's side have just one win in their past 11 games in all competitions. The Catalan doesn't appear to have the solution to City's problems, which began at the end of October, and he's clearly feeling the pressure.

Guardiola committed his future to the Etihad Stadium side last month but the rebuild will be more exhaustive than he would have imagined. Never before has the 53-year-old experienced a situation like this, according to former Manchester United forward Yorke, who believes he is "swimming for his life" right now.

"As a manager, you try to analyse Pep over the years. You look to him as the standard-bearer and he's quite right, he's never been in this position, so it's an uncharted water for him. We have to see him swim for his life in many respects," Yorke, head coach of the Trinidad and Tobago national team, told sportslens.com.

"Someone of his ability and huge success, it just shows you how the game changes and how difficult it is to operate at the top of the game as a manager. Even though he is a student of the game, continuing to learn, there is always something unexpected that challenges you."

Yorke argues that Guardiola's own stubbornness is preventing him from getting City back on track.

"He is to blame for what is happening at City. Part of the reason City haven’t won many games recently is because Pep is stubborn," he added.

"This is my take on it, I might be wrong, and I’m not saying this lightly, but when you're that great a manager, you become set in your ways in terms of how you set your team up. If you divert from those ideas, if you start changing and chopping, going away from your philosophy and ideas, it creates uncertainty within your players’ minds and doubts start to creep in.

"After a couple of games where City have lost, you think, ‘okay, I get what he's doing,’ but he's got players on the bench and he’s not using them. He doesn't make changes until it’s too late, even when he’s getting beaten. Normally a manager would not panic, but they would at least try to make some changes to get back into the game, but sometimes he leaves his best players on the bench, and people are scratching their heads."

The reigning champions travel to the Midlands on Saturday for a lunchtime kick-off against Aston Villa.