Manchester City need a point on the final day to guarantee their place in next season's Champions League as Pep Guardiola's men head to Craven Cottage to face Fulham
Pep Guardiola insists he will only be judged on results - and admitted that's prepared to change his footballing philosophy if it would guarantee him the point Manchester City need to secure Champions League qualification.
City start the final day in third place and with a superior goal difference on Newcastle, Chelsea, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest - but a defeat at Fulham would open the door for all four of their rivals to overtake them.
After a week when Ruben Amorim’s refusal to change his beliefs has led to a Europa League Final defeat and more doubts being raised about his Manchester United future, Guardiola is under no illusions that he will be judged on whether City can get over the line.
Guardiola said: “The manager is good if you win - if you don’t then his decisions are wrong. Any plan when you win, that’s really, really, really good. We are judged for our results, not for the way we want to approach the game.
“I thought after many, many years it might not be like that. But a manager is really, really good if he wins…if he doesn’t then he has problems.
“If we have to play in a certain way to take a point then I will do it. If that means changing the principles, to sit back and wait for the transition, and play another way to take the point, then I will do it. I promise you I will do it.
“If I think that’s the best way to take a point or the three then I will do it. We have to respect whatever we have to do over the 90 minutes or the 95 minutes.
“For me, my idea is to try to play to win the game. But if we are playing bad or the opponents are playing better than us then will I change. You have to play to score and win games but if we have to defend for 90 minutes to get the result that is what we will do.”
City last failed to qualify for the Champions League in 2010 - and two years ago they became European champions for the first time. Last week the Blues were beaten by Crystal Palace in the FA Cup Final and will now finish without a trophy since the end of Guardiola’s first season in Manchester in 2017.
The Catalan accepts there will be consequences if his team suffer another defeat in the capital - but insisted it will not be a fatal blow for the future.
Guardiola said: “After the end of the season, we will decide what we have done with the process, what we can do more carefully, what happened, what we should have anticipated with our decisions and what we have to do for the best future.
“It will be easier to do that if we are in the Champions League.
“If we don’t qualify, we will survive. We will move forward and we will take the decisions we have to take. But the club, I am pretty sure, is thinking for the best. I know the season has not been good - but always it can be worse, right? So we must just focus on what we have to do in the game.
“For the big teams it is always like that, how you stand up every time when the situation is not perfect. That is what we are going to have to do.”
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