Pep Guardiola would not be the only one at the Etihad Stadium to take issue with the comments of Ilkay Gundogan, who spoke honestly about Manchester City’s form
Pep Guardiola is not the only person at Manchester City who would disagree with Ilkay Gundogan’s recent comments.
Gundogan, 34, admitted that he feels his team-mates are suffering from a lack in confidence after the reigning Premier League champions lost 2-0 to Juventus in the Champions League. In his own post-match interview, Guardiola quickly contradicted his comments, insisting low confidence levels are not the problem.
The defeat to the Italian giants was their seventh loss in the last 10 matches in all competitions. While the Catalan coach hit out at Gundogan’s post-match interview, City defender Kyle Walker also shut down suggestions that confidence was low after their 4-0 home loss to Tottenham Hotspur last month.
Instead, he insisted their poor form was just a bad patch of results he believed City would get through. After the defeat to his former club Spurs, Walker said: “We’re going through a bad spell but we will come out the end of it.
“We’ve got the characters and more than enough ability in there to do so. We won’t give up. We’ve all achieved a lot for this club. It’s a new season and we need to go and fight for the Premier League again.
“We’ve got a game on Tuesday, we just need to get one win and hopefully we get our mojo back. Do I think we’ve lost confidence? No, I think it’s stupid for us to say that. We just need to start winning again.”
His comments differ immensely to Gundogan, who insisted a dip in belief was behind their poor form. The ex-Barcelona midfielder said: “Confidence is a big part of it. That’s a mental issue as well.
“You can see that we are sometimes one action we miss the ball or lose a duel and you see that we drop immediately and lose the rhythm. They don’t even need to do much but it has such a big effect on us right now.”
City dropped to 22nd in the Champions League table and are now perilously close to departing the competition entirely. They face Paris Saint-Germain on January 22 and a loss in the French capital would see the 25th-placed Parisians overtake them.
Guardiola has been trying to maintain a calm demeanour in what is turning out to be the biggest fall in performance levels of his managerial career. Despite the results, he did not agree with Gundogan in the slightest.
The ex-Bayern Munich boss said: “I am not agreeing with Ilkay. Of course it is tough, except one or two games in this period that were not good, the rest we were played, good. I give credit to Juventus for the way they played and defended in the transitions.
“But we were incredibly aggressive in our high pressing, the long balls. The back four was really good. It is a cross and [Dusan] Vlahovic is strong in this position. But the way we played I’m really pleased.”
Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
