Pep Guardiola admits Man City’s dire run is keeping him up at night – as under-pressure boss claims his title rivals are ‘laughing’ at the four-in-a-row champions

Pep Guardiola admits his players are suffering and that Manchester City’s dire winless run is making him lose sleep.

Five defeats and a draw is the worst sequence of the Catalan’s managerial career. And things do not get any easier for City, who visit league leaders Liverpool on Sunday.

It amounts to the biggest crisis of Guardiola’s time in the dugout and he admits he is feeling the strain.

‘I don’t enjoy it at all. I don’t sleep as good as when I win every game,’ admitted the 53-year-old, who recently signed a two-year contract extension.

‘Right now, I want to be closer to the players. My hugs and arms are closer to them because I know they are suffering.

‘I know they are thinking “Oh my God, how were not able to win against Feyenoord? Why didn’t we score when we had the chances against Spurs?”.

City’s closest rivals are ‘laughing at your defeats’ according to the under pressure Catalan boss

‘In good moments I have to be more aggressive to avoid complacency, but at the moment they want to do it, but we are not finding the right way.

‘What can I do, blame them? Absolutely not. This shall pass — nothing is eternal.’

Guardiola wants to use the fact that rivals are enjoying City’s bad run as motivation.

‘As normal in sport, they laugh at your defeats,’ he said. ‘I am confident knowing sometimes things don’t work, but it will work tomorrow.’