MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 15: Josep 'Pep' Guardiola, manager of Manchester City, issues instructions to Kyle Walker of Manchester City during the Premier League match between Manchester City FC and Manchester United FC at Etihad Stadium on December 15, 2024 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey - Danehouse/Getty Images)
Kyle Walker
Kyle Walker deserves plenty of criticism for his form this season but some of it has been over the top.
The racism he got in the wake of the Juventus defeat was obviously abhorrent and unacceptable but even fans slagging him off for not speaking are wide of the mark. When it comes to media interviews that the players do not contractually have to do, you can count on one hand the number of City stars who have fronted up after a draw or defeat this season...with three fingers to spare.
Ilkay Gundogan spoke after the Feyenoord collapse and Walker spoke after Bournemouth. Ruben Dias, Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva have all stepped up for TV media duties before and after games in this dreadful run, yet Walker is one of just two players to go out of their way to talk.
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He has also sent messages directly to the fanbase on social media, and on there if he is seeing racist abuse he is probably also seeing people sending him general abuse not only for his form but also for whatever he says. The captain is an unpopular figure with many supporters to the point where he can do no right whether he opens his mouth or not - but it should at least be acknowledged that he is one of the few that has.
One of the strange things about this crisis is that it has been such a united front from the players. They have all said the right things, it is just none of them have been able to back it up on the pitch.
That has its own issues, but such public harmony is not what is expected from such a run. The two clubs who sacked their managers this weekend gone, Southampton and Wolves, both saw real anger from players during or at the end of games.
City's run is so bad that it echoes the collapse of Jose Mourinho's Chelsea in 2015/16 after winning the league, except in that case Mourinho was in the process of scorching all earth as everything tumbled down around him. Whenever any manager is in trouble in the modern era, there is almost always a player's social media account liking a critical post or making known a grievance - look at Marcus Rashford at United and they actually won the derby.
If there are any tensions behind the walls of the City Football Academy, they haven't boiled over to the outside world. That won't make Blues feel any better now about the black hole they appear to be in, but it may just help them to get themselves out of it rather than disappearing completely.