Inside Pep Guardiola’s greatest challenge yet as Man City plot a transfer raid amid Kevin De Bruyne mystery, writes JACK GAUGHAN

Pep Guardiola smiled last week as he agreed that Manchester City’s Premier League rivals would be laughing at their current demise.

And so it was no surprise to see him indulge in the waving of six fingers, signifying his title wins, at a baying Liverpool crowd who were mock-suggesting that the City boss was ready to receive his P45.

City went to Anfield just wanting to survive and, amid this torrid run of seven without victory, a two-goal defeat at the toughest ground in the country left Guardiola seeming a little brighter.

‘Call me delusional,’ the Catalan said. ‘But from here I believe we will start to build back to winning games.’

Their next fixture is a bit more forgiving, Nottingham Forest at home on Wednesday, but not without difficulty. City have a multitude of problems to fix and the time has come for it to click again.

City were beaten 2-0 by Liverpool and find themselves already 11 points off the top of the table

Guardiola held up six fingers – to mark his six Premier League titles – in defiance at Anfield 

If it isn’t Haaland, nobody is scoring 

A lot was made of City’s line-up against Liverpool. Guardiola made reference to it afterwards, suggesting that his decision wasn’t everybody’s cup of tea — which could be a window into discussions with the squad beforehand or equally that he has gauged fan reaction online. Both of those things have happened before.

It was particularly striking when the team news was released that 12-goal Erling Haaland was the only City player in the starting XI to have scored in the Premier League so far this season.

The only others were either on the bench having recently returned from injury (Jeremy Doku), on a seemingly never-ending quest for fitness (Kevin De Bruyne), dropped (Josko Gvardiol), or injured again (John Stones and Mateo Kovacic).

There does come that feeling that if it isn’t Haaland, it’s nobody. Haaland has missed opportunities recently, notably in that 4-0 defeat by Tottenham, yet is shouldering it all. Phil Foden, who has quietly battled fitness problems throughout the campaign, has yet to score.

This is all new for City, who have been top scorers in the league every year since Guardiola’s first — even in 2020, when they meekly surrendered to Liverpool, they finished with 102.

They have only once failed to hit 90, when dominating the division with false nines four seasons ago. The output will undoubtedly improve, but on current form — 22 from 13 games — City are on track to end with 64.

They have lost each of their last five matches on expected goals (xG) in all competitions and, while Guardiola is not huge on the use of statistics, that is a metric he does pay some attention to.

To plonk all of this at Haaland’s door would be too simplistic. The malaise speaks to a team who are not functioning properly further back, creating issues in their usually fluid build-up.

The passing lines have rarely been there for whatever reasons. As we saw at Anfield, when they are, nervous midfielders are taking the easy options to try to eradicate mistakes. That’s laying up rather than going for the pin.

Erling Haaland is struggling for goals but if he isn’t scoring, no-one is for City right now

City have scored 22 goals this season in the Premier League and the Norwegian has 12 of them

De Bruyne’s puzzling fitness problems

Obviously the big risk taker is De Bruyne and he has only really been around in spirit since September, with 71 minutes worth of substitute appearances over the last five games. De Bruyne spoke candidly about his pelvic injury last week, describing it as the most frustrating he’d ever encountered in his career.

He had been training at varying levels of intensity for weeks before the Tottenham clash yet it was only a day prior that he’d stopped feeling pain when striking a ball. Since then he’s played more minutes off the bench, although on the surface it looks strange.

‘The De Bruyne thing is unusual, bizarre,’ said Gary Neville on pundit duty. ‘Why is probably the best player the Premier League has had in the last 10 years not out there? We know he’s had injuries but why is he not out there? He’s a leader, he’s got authority, confidence and brilliance, so something is definitely going on in the dressing room.’ Jamie Carragher offered similar thoughts.

It was interesting to watch the Belgian in the defeat by Sporting Lisbon last month when, after coming on with the game already lost, he became embroiled in a heated discussion with a first-team coach.

The messaging around De Bruyne recently has been consistent and chimes with what the 33-year-old has said himself. At his age, he knows his body better than anybody else and the idea of Guardiola steadfastly refusing to start his best player amid this run of form is preposterous.

But it does present questions about his future. The idea has always been that De Bruyne will be the master of his own destiny given he is arguably the best player in the club’s history — and certainly in the top three.

The Saudi Pro League made a big play last year, which he gave thought to, and the new MLS franchise San Diego are interested when his contract runs down in the summer.

Some of the stellar names — Vincent Kompany included — have taken charge of their own end date, while someone like David Silva saw the wind’s direction and a parting was mutually agreed. Sergio Aguero wanted to stay before eventually leaving on a free transfer.

Kevin De Bruyne’s continuing fitness problems are proving to be puzzling for Guardiola

Gary Neville suggested that something was going on with De Bruyne behind the scenes

Rebuild through the transfer market 

Though he is a different profile to De Bruyne, Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz, 21, would represent the dream signing in attacking midfield — but the German will have all of Europe’s top sides chasing his signature.

City have the second-oldest squad in the Premier League these days and Guardiola mentioned the need for ‘a rebuild’ last week, having previously insisted that he doesn’t see age as long as good performances are evident.

Central midfield is an obvious area of concern after Rodri’s double knee injury, with Real Sociedad’s Martin Zubimendi, Ederson at Atalanta and Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton all pinpointed as potential signings.

It feels like City have held back somewhat in the market over recent seasons and some supporters have criticised what they view as a lack of proactivity.

Since 2021, only £77million Josko Gvardiol makes it into their top nine most expensive transfers — which is eye-catching given the spiralling fees worldwide.

City might fairly argue that replacing some of the older guard has, until this point, seemed like an exercise in wastefulness if there weren’t the correct replacements available.

Now that has become something of a necessity — and in public, Guardiola has indicated he is the man to oversee it after signing a two-year contract extension.

Another attacking option wouldn’t go amiss following the record £81.5m sale of Julian Alvarez to Atletico Madrid in August. Alvarez would by no means solve all of City’s current issues — and wanted to play regularly — yet did chip in and offer Haaland rest.

City have consistently turned a profit in recent windows — with departed academy graduates Cole Palmer, Romeo Lavia and Liam Delap all impressing on the big stage — and that money will have to be put to good use.

City need fresh blood but it won’t be easy with top target Florian Wirtz wanted by most top clubs

Rodri’s knee injury has had a major impact on City and central midfield is a major concern

Where to find fresh motivation? 

Guardiola worked exceptionally hard to eradicate any Treble hangover last season. He presented the players with a picture of a mountain to indicate they were back at the bottom following their exploits and how it needed climbing again.

That was when the four-in-a-row was on the line, an achievement you suspect that Guardiola will go on to value more than anything else in his managerial career. The effort required to galvanise the group can’t be overstated. What was and is the end goal, the summit, this time? Five, sure. But extending a record isn’t quite the same as breaking one.

City’s players say the right things. Stopping just short of an apology, captain Kyle Walker posted on Instagram yesterday about how they ‘know recent performance haven’t been up to the standard we expect’. He insisted that they will ‘come through this’.

Suggesting that there is no fight and accountability in that dressing room would be wrong — the proof of which comes over the last eight years. Subconscious drop-offs are a little different though, and harder to act upon.

Externally, there may be those wondering about how much impact of the club’s ongoing case with the Premier League might be having — but realistically the focus of a collection of footballers is unlikely to be altered by legal arguments between suits. Guardiola himself used the initial charges in 2023 to rouse himself and the coaching staff rather than pass that form of siege mentality on to the squad.

Perhaps Guardiola is struggling to motivate his squad after all they have achieved over the years

The defence has been badly struggling, but Ruben Dias’ return will offer them more stability

Defence caught cold 

A state of disorganisation has engulfed City recently and the adverse reaction to setbacks — something that blighted them in the biggest games before the Treble season — has crept back in.

The displays of Ruben Dias had not been perfect at the start of this term but his re-emergence on Sunday at Liverpool should offer the back line more stability moving forward.

A calf injury saw him miss the second half of the Tottenham defeat in the Carabao Cup and then the losses to Bournemouth, Sporting, Brighton, Spurs at home and draw to Feyenoord. The last four of those all included quickfire goals when City couldn’t set themselves. Guardiola’s reaction to the latest was to drop Gvardiol and Ederson — neither will be on the sidelines for long.

Dias, part of the leadership group, was the one who gave the team talk during the huddle before kick-off at Anfield, delivering it ahead of Walker. And while team-mates can poke fun at Dias for motivating in cliches, the Portuguese has the necessary grit to pull people with him.

If City, down in fifth place after the latest loss, are going back to basics in their quest to arrest this slide, it’s exactly what they need.