Ilkay Gundogan has said the answer to Manchester City's problems is obvious.Ilkay Gundogan has said the answer to Manchester City's problems is obvious.
Ilkay Gundogan has said the answer to Manchester City's problems is obvious. | AFP via Getty Images
The Manchester City midfielder also said the team are struggling mentally at present.
Ilkay Gundogan has given a brutally honest appraisal of Manchester City’s current issues and has said the players know what the problem is, but can’t find the solution.
He made those comments in the wake of another City defeat, this time away to Juventus in the Champions League that leaves City’s chances of securing a top-eight finish all but over. Again, Pep Guardiola’s side had some good moments in Turin but couldn’t create enough clear-cut openings and were cut open too easily on the break.
It means City have now lost six of the last seven away games and have won just once in the last 10. For Gundogan, he feels the team need to go back to basics in order to rediscover their form.
“It’s very disappointing,” the German conceded in a post-match interview with TNT Sports. “We had chances to score a few goals but at the moment it feels like every attack we concede is so dangerous.
“I have a feeling that we are sometimes a bit careless and rather than play simple we overcomplicate things. We missed the right timings to release the ball and transition every time and give them the counter attacks and we have chase every time 50/60 metres back. That’s not what we are built for. At the moment it is just not working out for us.”
Asked if City are running out of ideas, the summer signing responded: “No, it’s the opposite. We know exactly what is going wrong and we know the reasons. Even if you look at the most part of the game, even today, we actually don’t play bad, I feel. We played quite good football and created chances. We just missed.
“I just feel like, even to ourselves, it’s just so obvious what is going wrong but it’s about trying to find the switch to turn things around.
“Even though we are not getting the results it doesn’t feel like we are far off it. That might sound a little bit stupid now but that’s how I feel. Until we find that click it is going to be tough. The only thing you can do is every single player has to question themselves to do better.”
Guardiola had insisted in his press conference the previous day that City’s players are not lacking confidence or are struggling mentally. It’s a verdict that Gundogan clearly doesn’t agree with.
“It [confidence] is a big part of it and that is a mental issue as well. I feel like you can see that one action, we miss the ball or a lose a duel and you see that we drop immediately and lose the rhythm and they are able to break out of it with the smallest of things. We don’t even need to do much and it has such a big effect on us right now.
“Even more we need to do the simple things as good as possible, and quick and fluidly. It’s work hard again, that’s how you get the confidence back.”
The loss means City now sit 22nd in the Champions League table, five points off the qualification places and, incredibly, just a point above the cut-off to be eliminated altogether.
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