Guardiola misses the pressure of managing in Spain

Pep Guardiola says he misses the pressure of managing in Spain and Germany and suggests his Manchester City squad would be better off if the Etihad Stadium crowd were more demanding of results.

Guardiola says he is enjoying his first season in English football and has praised his “amazing” employers for doing everything to support him.

The Catalan also says he is “so glad” to have such an understanding set of home supporters, highlighting how accepting they were after City were eliminated from the Champions League and failed to win their next three Premier League matches.

Guardiola also praised City’s away fans in another section of his press conference after the Southampton game on Saturday.

But on several occasions in recent weeks he has stressed the importance of instilling a winning mentality into his squad, and he says a more intense, unforgiving environment would help his players.

“Here I miss a little bit the pressure,” he said. “Especially in Spain and in Germany, the pressure is higher to the players, to the managers, to everybody. Here it is calm. For example the fans are always perfect, I love that, and you know the club is amazing, the club supports everybody.

“But sometimes when you realise you cannot lose you feel the pressure, because you will be so criticised. To help the players step forward you have to create something to make them believe they [must not] lose, and we need time to create something to put in the heads and the hearts of the players that if you want to become a stronger club and stronger team that we cannot drop points at home, because our quality is higher, we cannot drop points.

“The difference is the mentality, not the quality, because the quality is always there.”