MANCHESTER: Pep Guardiola has warned his players they must be more clinical in front of goal or they will fail to close the gap on Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur next season.
And the Manchester City manager also hopes that Belgian star Kevin De Bruyne will help in that aim by shedding his tag as the Premier League's nearly man in the goalscoring stakes.
Guardiola's men enter the final day of the league campaign facing the prospect of finishing as many as 18 points behind champions Chelsea and 11 back from runners-up Spurs.
The Catalan has already identified his team's main problem -- their inability to convert chances into goals, a particular issue at their Etihad Stadium home.
"I have learnt you have to score more goals. Basically that," said Guardiola when asked what the biggest lesson he had taken from his debut season in English football.
"So at home, especially at home, we dropped a lot of points," the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager added. "It's impossible to avoid that. But we didn't score enough goals at home
"So we have to play a little bit better to create more chances to create more goals. If we want to reduce that gap, maybe that gap with Tottenham and Chelsea will be short. If we don't, it will be the same," warned Guardiola, whose side finish the season away to Watford on Sunday.
City's tally of 37 goals from 19 home games this season is the worst among the elite top four teams and even that figure has been boosted by big home wins this month against Crystal Palace and West Bromwich Albion.
Guardiola cited De Bruyne as a case in point when it came to the fine margins involved.
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