Guardiola Admits Matching Man Utd Is His Biggest Challenge as Amazon Series Appears to Mock Mourinho

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has admitted that his 'biggest challenge' as a manager is to 'change' the status quo in English football that has existed since the dawn of the Premier League era and stop neighbours Manchester United from winning and being a force.

United boss Alex Ferguson famously said his greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool 'right off their f***ing perch', and Guardiola seems to now be taking the same view with regard to the Old Trafford club in quotes from City's behind-the-scenes 'All or Nothing' Amazon Prime series.

"We have neighbours who, for 15 or 20 years, have always won. I think my biggest challenge as a manager is to change that," the boss said, via the Daily Mirror.

Last season, which is the focus of the £10m docuseries, Guardiola secured City's second Premier League title since United last won and did so in record breaking fashion.

In the raw and honest production, which is available on Amazon's streaming platform as of this week, Guardiola also admitted that he sometimes has to improvise and make it up as he goes along as he doesn't have the solution to every problem that arises.

Matthew Ashton - AMA/GettyImages

"I am going to tell you something that is absolutely true: I don't have all the answers. Often, when I don't know something, I act in front of the players as if I do," he said. "I do it so they believe I have the right answers and it gives them confidence to play."

At another time he said of his pre-match preparations: "I like to have a noisy dressing room before a match. I feel that animates the players more."

And before the Carabao Cup final against Arsenal, he told his squad, "You have to learn to play football with courage. The best thing in our season is that it doesn't matter where we were, we play with a f ***ing character and the courage to show who we are."

English football, and specifically Manchester, is the latest setting for the longstanding rivalry between Guardiola and United counterpart Jose Mourinho. That is not something that is skipped over in 'All or Nothing', with Mourinho's reputation even appearing to be the butt of jokes.

The Daily Telegraph notes that while City didn't have editorial control after granting Amazon cameras incredible levels of access, the club was able to veto anything included in the final cut that could be considered potentially slanderous or divulging sensitive information.

"It is Guardiola versus Mourinho once more; possession versus defence; attacking football versus 'park-the-bus'," a line read by narrator Sir Ben Kingsley to set up the Manchester derby played at Old Trafford in December was left in.

The episode even shows City fans singing about Mourinho's tactics after the game and press conference clips of the United boss refuting that City's dominance possession held relevance.

City are the not the first football club to dabble in a behind-the-scenes reality series, with Juventus launching the six-part 'First Team' on Netflix earlier this year. Liverpool also had cameras follow them during the summer of 2012, while in American Football 'Hard Knocks' has been capturing training camp and pre-season for a different NFL team every year since 2001.