Carragher pinpoints one area Man City need to ‘rebuild’ after 5 defeats in a row

Jamie Carragher has claimed that Manchester City may need to 'rebuild' one aspect of their squad amid their ongoing struggles.

City were humiliated at home when they lost 4–0 to Tottenham, with James Maddison scoring a goal and Pedro Porro and Brennan Johnson also scoring in the defeat.

It was City's fifth straight defeat in all competitions, including three games in the Premier League, and the gap to Liverpool could widen to eight points on Sunday ahead of a trip to Anfield next weekend.

Speaking on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football, Carragher attempted to identify City's problems and compared them to a similar problem Liverpool were struggling with.

He said: 'It's the midfield (that's the biggest concern). Rodri is clearly a big miss, but the problem they have is the players they have brought in. Kovacic is struggling if he remains isolated.

'Against West Ham, for example, the press was not fully present and always arrived late, then Kovacic ends up in no man's land and before you know it West Ham has collapsed and has scored.

'In the Carabao Cup against Tottenham it is Gündogan this time. Once again Man City's press is wrong, Kulusevski goes one way and then the other and leaves Gundogan. Before you know it he's chasing back and at 34 years old he doesn't have the legs to come back.

'They are really struggling in midfield, there is no doubt about that. Rodri is a huge miss, but it's the player profile of the players they signed (that's the problem).

'As for Pep, he thinks of things and tries to solve it, but it actually alleviated the problems there (against Tottenham). What I would say, this analysis that we are doing now, I did the same analysis two years ago with Jordan Henderson and Fabinho.

“What I'm talking about with Gundogan and Kovacic, these are not players who are out of form, this is not going to change. Henderson and Fabinho in those positions eventually moved on. And Liverpool had to rebuild in midfield.

'That's what Manchester City will have to do. Whatever Pep thinks, there aren't enough legs in midfield at the moment to change what we see.'

Pep Guardiola recently admitted he is not surprised by City's current problems.

As reported by The Mirror, Guardiola said: 'It's not like we've been like this for years, but I said before that it should have happened sooner or later.

“I know we won and won again, but sooner or later you get this situation for many reasons, few reasons why.

“It's not 'this is why', it's the little things that go wrong from the start of the season and they keep getting worse. Now we have to face it.

“You can't say anything, the situation is that you have to keep going, my friends, keep going. We've done it in the past. In terms of results, not as bad as now, but we did it, faced the situation and made progress.'