Guardiola: I doubted my players during winless streak

Pep Guardiola was unmoved on his footballing philosophy during Manchester City's run of six matches without a win, but admitted he questioned the players he chose to execute it.

City ended its drab sextet of matches Saturday by outclassing West Bromwich Albion in a 4-0 away win, but questions still linger for the Spanish manager ahead of Tuesday's Champions League visit from his old employer Barcelona.

"Six games without winning is a long time," Guardiola told BBC Sport.

"When we lose always you doubt. Also in the second half when we didn't play like the first half I had doubts about what we had to do to improve."

During the disappointing spell, Guardiola shuffled his pack on numerous occasions, including leaving Sergio Aguero on the bench for a trip to Barcelona two weeks ago, and appears to have learned of certain players' limitations through his tweaks.

"The principles? No doubts," he replied when asked if he considered changing his approach. "But to know the players, how they play with other ones, how you play in different systems, sometimes you make a doubt, yes.

"Winning again is so important for us. When you lose, the problem is you lose a bit of confidence each time for the next game and it has happened in this period."

Ilkay Gundogan and Aguero both contributed a brace in the weekend fixture, and Guardiola was particularly complimentary about the latter, who's bagged six strikes in his last seven Premier League outings.

Related: Aguero brace ends Guardiola's barren run

"We know how important it is for us when he can be as good as he is," the gaffer continued. "He is part of the history of this club but I would like to help him still. That is my target. Help him to feel how important he is for us in in every game.

"He is one of the best. And above all that he is one of the nicest people I have ever met. I love working with the nice guys, and Sergio is one of them."

After the midweek tilt against Barcelona, City returns to domestic action with a visit from Middlesbrough next Saturday.