Ilkay Gundogan says the impact of City’s new coaching staff and players is already being felt at the FIFA Club World Cup as demonstrated by Monday’s emphatic 6-0 win against Al Ain in our second Group G outing.
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Club World Cup
City cruise into Club World Cup knockouts with Al Ain win](https://www.mancity.com/news/fifa-club-world-cup/man-city-v-al-ain-fifa-club-world-cup-match-report-63886230)
The victory in Atlanta not only sealed City’s place in the last 16 – but also provided further evidence of the influence of the new arrivals, not least set piece coach James French.
Having scored from a set piece via Jeremy Doku’s strike from a corner against Wydad AC in last Wednesday’s Club World Cup opener, City proved a potent threat once more from a dead ball situation in hitting Al Ain for six.
Claudio Echeverri marked his first start for City by despatching a quite wonderful first half free-kick.
For Gundogan, who produced a player of the match display against the Abu Dhabi side, scoring twice, those set piece strikes and the way a new-look City squad is starting to gel, merely bear witness to the quick impact of both the club’s recent signings and new coaching staff as well.
“I think the new people have come in, especially our new set piece coach, and explained things in a very simple way that I quite like and that the other players like,” Gundogan said in the wake of the Al Ain victory.
“We tried to get the patterns and the connections between the players - not just for set pieces but also for our tactics and the way we play.
ORTEGA HAILS CITY’S STRENGTH IN DEPTH
“One of the most important things is getting those connections and getting to know each other as good as possible.
“Only if we are connected as well as we can be can we play amazing football.
“We have done it in the past and it’s about winning that back.
“We have started really good in this competition and now it’s about doing it better and better in every single game.”
Play the video to watch Ilkay’s interview in full…