'The worst week of Guardiola's reign as City manager'

It was a dream December for Pep Guardiola as Manchester City went unbeaten all month.

January has been stark in comparison. Stuttering form in the league was eviscerated in the Manchester derby when United swept a woeful City aside 2-0. A damning defeat, but the worst was yet to come.

A trip to the Arctic Circle so soon after licking those wounds should've been a time for redemption. Bodo/Glimt were not to be underestimated, but the Norwegian side hadn't played a competitive game of football for six weeks. For Pep, it wasn't a night for experiments. It was a night to put things right. It was also a night that turned out to be the worst of his City career so far.

Struggling with injuries in his back line, insisting on playing a high defensive line was kamikaze and ultimately, disastrous. Playing players out of position was confusing and unnecessary. Pep has always ran a gauntlet of high risk, high reward, but when the result is more humiliation, questions have to be asked about the tactics so stubbornly deployed.

Rodri threw in the towel after the hour. After spending the first half berating the lack of press from his team-mates, two yellows in quick succession sent him to an early bath. In a match in unfamiliar surroundings, with the youngest City team to feature in the Champions League, the more experienced heads should have led by example.

They did anything but. Negative body language, sulking, shaking their heads - the club are still in all four competitions as it stands. Now wasn't the time for petulance - it was a time for passion and performance, but City's silverware challenge may now be as artificial as the pitch they played on in Norway. Things have to change - and fast - as more and more questions are being asked of the manager who's brought them so much success over the past decade.

What now? Wolves on Saturday, who are unbeaten in their last five games. It's a time to get back to basics - to play players in the natural positions to play to their strengths, to get their confidence back. Pep insists he has a plan and that he has to change the dynamic. That was obvious to us mere mortals after the derby defeat.

Football is much more physical, more direct now. It's adapt or bust. Can Pep conjure up a plan - or will Wolves smell blood and pile more misery on to what has already been the worst week of Guardiola's reign as City manager? And, if so, then what?

Emily Brobyn is regularly on BBC Radio Manchester - find all their Man City audio here