It is really difficult to say at such a low moment, but I think the facts are being put pretty bald that Man City was so far below the level that they had to be to compete against Real Madrid in Spain.
Since I arrived in Madrid a few days ago, there was a growing conviction that, despite the first stage, despite the way it ended, City would come here and really challenge Madrid, would score, bothering them.
I think that was the most worrying from the point of view of Pep Guardiola on Wednesday evening – that the team was not the team that we were used to. They were unrecognizable in the sense that they did not cause enough problems with the ball.
He was asked before the game if this could be the last hurray of Champions League for part of this team – and while he struck it, after the Guardiola match was a bit fairer when he talked about the need to might be up again Build.
He said they will look at it in the summer, but they have already spent great in January. Summer will be more about players who leave. Look at the contracts that rose in June – such as Kevin De Bruyne or Ilkay Gundogan.
There has not been a word from the club about whether they will extend one of those deals, but both players are in the thirty and have seen physically short in recent weeks. That is something that Pep Guardiola spoke about after the game; His team did not have the physicality to match Real Madrid on the field. So you wonder which decision will be made about each of these.
The following summer it might be even more urgent, since there is still a series of players – people like John Stones, who unfortunately have been injured in Madrid, Plus Bernardo Silva and Ederson – also from the contract. These are all players who are or will be in thirty by the time the end of their contracts comes.
The club must seriously look at where those players are in terms of their career and how to return to the matching of Real Madrid, which it must be said was a better team than I have seen in recent seasons.
So where now? This was also something that Pep spoke about after the game. It is very difficult. You could see that he was very downbeat, and the Bernabeu is not a stadium that he mainly enjoys.
I followed City and followed him here a few times. He is simply abhorred by those connected to Real Madrid because of those connections of Barcelona. His image, for example, when it came up on the big screen, was hunted louder than every city player.
So you can understand why he was completely down, but after the game he spoke about how City motivates herself for the rest of the season, because they have to pick themselves up this weekend to go into a huge game in the Premier League against Liverpool, one team that has been their biggest rival.
Those competitions in recent years have been the most intense in the Premier League, and they have each pushed each other to new levels. Jurgen Klopp was the rival that Pep was against and made sure that he came up with a way to hit and pass by. But this season Pep is struggling for answers.
I have lost the number of the number of press conferences that I was after the game and he was asked something in the lines of how he picks up his players, what goes wrong and how does he solve these problems.
And we are now weeks and weeks and weeks after losing Rodri. So many games have been played and there is not that solution that has presented itself.
We had flashes, such as during the weekend in the Premier League against Newcastle with Nico Gonzalez, the 'mini-rodri' suddenly, but in Madrid those same players were a shadow of the team that we saw during the weekend.
So it's a difficult thing for Pep. He clearly tries to stay positive. They have to finish at the Champions League places.
Financially that is really important, especially if you are considering everything in terms of a potential team. And then it's the FA Cup. The point is to lift some silverware and save something from what else, as Pep said, has been one of their lowest seasons.
Comments