Pep Guardiola isn't the only person at Manchester City to disagree with Ilkay Gundogan's recent comments.
Gundogan, 34, admitted he feels his teammates are suffering from a lack of confidence after the reigning Premier League champions lost 2-0 to Juventus in the Champions League. In his own post-match interview, Guardiola was quick to contradict his comments and insist that low confidence levels are not the problem.
The defeat to the Italian giants was their seventh defeat in the last ten games in all competitions. As the Catalan coach hit out during 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 result that he believed City could get through. After the defeat to his former club Spurs, Walker said: “We are going through a bad period but we will get through it.
“We have the characters and more than enough skills to do this. We will not give up. We have all achieved a lot for this club. It is a new season and we have to fight for the Premier League again.
“We have a game on Tuesday, we just need to win once and hopefully we get our mojo back. Do I think we've lost confidence? No, I think it's stupid of us to say that. We just have to start again win.”
His comments differ greatly from those of Gündogan, who insisted a dip in belief was behind their poor form. The ex-Barcelona midfielder said: “Confidence plays a big role. It's also a mental issue.
“You see that sometimes in one action we miss the ball or lose a game and you see that we immediately fall and lose the rhythm. They don't even have to do much, but it has such a big effect on us at the moment. “
City dropped to 22nd in the Champions League and are now dangerously close to exiting the competition completely. They face Paris Saint-Germain on January 22 and a defeat in the French capital would see the 25th-placed Parisians overtake them.
Guardiola has tried to maintain a calm demeanor in what is proving to be the biggest drop in performance levels of his managerial career. Despite the results, he did not agree with Gündogan at all.
The former Bayern Munich boss said: “I don't agree with Ilkay. Of course it's tough, except for one or two games in this period that weren't good, the rest was played well. I give credit to Juventus for the way on which they played and defended in the transitions.
“But we were incredibly aggressive in our high pressing, the long balls. The back four were really good. It's a cross and.” [Dusan] Vlahovic is strong in this position. But I'm very pleased with the way we played.”
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