have asked for too much from his Manchester City
squad, adding that the Spaniard will have learnt
more from his first season in the Premier League
than from any previous campaigns.
Guardiola's debut season in England has not gone
according to script, with City still involved in a top-
four tussle with Liverpool, Arsenal and city rivals
Manchester United.
FA Cup and Champions League exits to Arsenal and
Monaco respectively in recent weeks mean that
Guardiola - whose side are 13 points adrift of
league leaders Chelsea - will end a season without
a trophy for the first time in his managerial career.
And Lampard, who spent a season at City in the
2014-15 campaign after ending his 13-year stint at
Chelsea, thinks Guardiola may have demanded too
much from the squad he inherited from Manuel
Pellegrini.
"I'm sure Pep Guardiola has learned more this year
than in any other year of his management,"
Lampard told talkSPORT.
"At Barcelona, he had a great team – who were
already playing the same style – but he enhanced
it. [And at] Bayern Munich, he took on the same.
"Manchester City obviously have great players –
and they've added great players – but he demands
a lot from his players.
"There's a real intelligence factor. Every player
needs to know how to move position, change
position, play in different positions – and I think
he's asked a lot from them this year, and I think
that might be the one thing he'll look at this year:
did I ask too much from this group?"
After a frustrating 0-0 draw in the Manchester
derby – in which Gabriel Jesus had a late goal
disallowed for offside – City will look to return to
winning ways when they take on struggling
Middlesbrough on Sunday.
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