Manchester City have taken just one point from their last two Premier League fixtures and offered two frustrating attacking performances as they stumble towards a Champions League place.
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Ilkay Gundogan vs Brighton
Ilkay Gundogan vs Brighton
Manchester City are running out of excuses. And ideas.
They can't keep falling back on Rodri's absence, or other injuries, or too many games, or not enough games. At some point, they have to put a run of wins together. At the moment, they are stumbling towards the Champions League.
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"I thought we had a good week of training," said Ilkay Gundogan after the frustrating (and at times lacklustre) performance vs Brighton. “We want to transmit that power and energy into the game. Sometimes it isn’t enough.”
If City can't produce that energy on the back of two free midweeks and no fresh outfield injuries, it's difficult to see where the improvement comes from. Pep Guardiola added £180m-worth of new signings in January and now he's making it clear that he favours the young, energetic forwards at his disposal than the old guard who have served him so well.
Guardiola will always defend those players - but his actions are speaking louder and the likes of Gundogan are getting fewer opportunities. Instead, the new guard are getting the chance to impress. Even if the inevitable mistakes come with it.
"There are still so many games, there are nine finals. We've talked a lot about this, that every game is a final for us," said Nico Gonzalez - the January addition who has restricted Gundogan and Mateo Kovacic to taking turns to partner him. Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne are struggling for starts these days, too.
"Today we played like it was a final. I'm sure if we keep playing like this, the results will come. We've said that we have to give everything. Today every player ran and fought for every ball as if it was the last game of the season."
Another January addition, Omar Marmoush, echoes his new teammate as City navigate the balance between building a side for the future and avoiding the unthinkable scenario of failing to qualify for the Champions League.
"Of course it's very important for us to be in the Champions League," he said. "We'll keep working, we won't calculate the position. We'll keep giving 100 per cent to just try to win the next games and give our best everything."
Both Gonzalez and Marmoush have shown enough in their first weeks at City to suggest they are worth building a new-look team around. Add Rodri into the mix, maybe get Phil Foden back into form, and there's a decent spine there to work around.
They have settled in well, too. Marmoush talks of City being a family already and is building a blossoming partnership with Erling Haaland. Gonzalez has his feet under the table enough to offer a more spiky defence of his new teammates.
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"I don't think it's a transition [period]. At City every year and every game you have to win, you have to give everything. I don't care if there are rumours outside," he insisted. "What I care is every game to fight to win. What people talk about outside of the dressing room, we don't care."
City will need that fight in the nine 'finals' of the season. Maybe if Gundogan and co. have run out of ideas, it's up to the new guard to step up earlier than expected off the pitch as well as on it.