Pep Guardiola has revisited January tactic to try and improve Man City

This doesn't quite have the intensity of the "happy flowers" monologue that helped turn Manchester City towards the treble 11 months ago, and it wasn't delivered with quite the same venom as that day, but Pep Guardiola's press conference on Friday carried a similar message.

His furious outburst at his players and his club back in January, after coming from 2-0 down to beat Tottenham 4-2, was credited with having an impact as City found top gear to win the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League. At the time it was an unexpected rant that exposed Guardiola's edginess in a title race with a new rival.

City eventually came out on top against Arsenal and Guardiola spoke at the start of this season about how pleased he was to see his players refocus so quickly after such a triumphant end to last season. But in recent weeks they have stumbled.

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After saying on Tuesday he was certain his side would win the league if they maintained their performance level, Guardiola subtly changed approach after his side were outplayed alarmingly at Villa Park. On Friday, he was talking about how he had sensed the club needed a "shake".

“The club, all the organisation, (know) we can be out of the Champions League next season," he said. “We have to work hard. We need it after what happened in the last years. As soon as possible we’ll realise and we come out of here quicker.

“Otherwise nothing is going to change; next season it will be back. We’re still in December, not even finished the first round, we have a lot of games to play. The Champions League is there, the FA Cup. Nice, exciting, beautiful