Ilkay Gundogan has called on 'every Manchester City player to question themselves' and solve the team's 'mental problem' after another shaky performance saw the side lose 2-0 to Juventus in the Champions League.
Pep Guardiola's side were frustrated by the home team in a cagey first half on Wednesday evening, before Dusan Vlahovic opened the scoring in the 53rd minute.
Second-half substitute Weston McKennie doubled the Old Lady's lead at the Allianz Stadium with a superlative acrobatic strike, to which the visitors had no answer.
Worryingly for the series champions, Wednesday's result leaves Man City in 22nd place in the standings, well outside the automatic qualification places, and in danger of failing to qualify for the knockout stages.
In their last ten matches, the English champions have won just once, and in Gundogan's view the team's problem is 'a mental issue'.
“It is very disappointing,” Gündogan told TNT Sports. 'I feel like we had chances to actually score a few goals, but at the moment it feels like every attack we get is so dangerous. Don't know.
'I feel that sometimes we are a bit careless in the matches and instead of playing simple, we overcomplicate things.
'(Confidence) is a big part of it and that is of course also a mental issue. I feel like you can see that we are, on one play we miss the ball or lose the game and you see that we immediately fall and lose the rhythm.
'They are able to break our rhythm with the smallest things. At the crucial moments of this moment, we always do the wrong things.
'I have the feeling that we know exactly what is going wrong and what the reasons are for it. And yet, if you look at the majority of the games, we don't play bad, we play pretty good football. It's not that easy to come back. It's so obvious what's going wrong, but it's trying to find the switch. This is my personal opinion and how I feel.
In a rallying cry to his teammates, Gundogan added: “Each player must individually question themselves and how they can sacrifice more to contribute.”
Man City now return to England aiming to turn around their lackluster run against a side with a similarly flawed recent record, crosstown rivals Manchester United.
Comments