Manuel Akanji is confident Manchester City will emerge from their current crisis and rediscover the imperious form that made them the best team in the world.
City are in the midst of their worst run under Pep Guardiola, with just one win in 13 games in all competitions, including nine defeats in that miserable run.
The fallen champions have fallen to seventh in the Premier League, 14 points behind leaders Liverpool, with the title gone and a place in the Champions League their only realistic target.
Against that backdrop, questions have been raised about City's ability to dig themselves out of the slump, but defender Akanji is confident they will emerge from the other team quickly.
“I still believe we will get back to the way we used to play,” Akanji said after the 1-1 draw with Everton on Boxing Day. “Sooner or later it will come.
“We have to keep working. There is nothing else we can do at this time. What do you expect from us? Change system? Play other players?
“As a team we were able to play this way before. Sometimes you have a bad run and things don't go your way, so it's good to look at the things that aren't working so well right now.
“But you shouldn't be at the point where you're going to change everything, because not everything was good before and not everything is bad now.
“We have to keep working and the next opportunity is in a few days. It takes away confidence. It increases confidence when you win matches and you lose confidence when you lose matches.”
City were without eight first-team players for the draw against Everton and lost Nathan Aké during the match, adding to the pressure on Guardiola's already depleted team. “I don't know if Nathan is really hurt, we'll see how he feels,” Akanji said. “Maybe it was just for safety because he came back and we have another game in a few days.
“But since I was here, we played the team this way for two years and it worked. We've had a lot of injuries, so it's not easy at the moment. Even now we will find a way out and get out of this and luck will be on our side again.
“Everyone wants to stay fit, no one wants to get injured, but the most important thing is that healthy players have to stay healthy.
“But it's not always easy when you play so many games a year and you don't really have time to recover. I have friends of mine who are on vacation and are now recovering for the second part of the season – we don't have that.
“We have to try to find a way for these players that are playing right now to stay healthy so that we can get the other guys back and rotate a little bit more and rest the ones that need to rest.”
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