Jamie Redknapp

Look, Pep Guardiola is a really intense manager.

Everyone who's worked with him, you see it here on the training pitch, how close he is to the players.

You might have seen extracts from the documentary where he's in rabble rousing, he's in players' ears.

He's like that all the time.

So he demands 100% from his players.

And if you're not giving him that, you won't be in the team.

He's been asked about this motivation question a few times this season, understandably.

And in the press conferences, he always throws it back to last year when he said, look, you cannot question my players' mentality after what we did last season when, effectively, we were dead and buried.

You know, they could have gone 14 points behind Liverpool last year, and yet...

they were able to beat Liverpool at the Etihad, claw that back, and win what was an incredibly tight title race.

And when you consider that Liverpool haven't really changed much this year from last, that shows you what a great effort it was from Manchester City.

So, in terms of mentality, I think you can't really question them.

But, the results tell you a slightly different story, don't they?

I mean, look, back this month alone, there was that brilliant 6-1 performance when they destroyed Aston Villa at Villa Park, and then they followed that up with a 2-2 draw home against Crystal Palace.

So,

It's not quite going to plan.

Things aren't quite right.

But I think, to be honest, that's as much down to personnel as as much the fact they're missing the likes of Laporte.

It's the fact that someone like Raheem Sterling is a key player.

He's not playing at the top of his game just at the moment.