When Kyle Walker was asked to explain the crisis that threatened to overwhelm Manchester City's season on Thursday night, he replied: “I would love to, but I can't.”
Maybe the time for talking is long gone.
Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden have both been sent off in recent weeks to give their views on the malaise that has now seen City lose seven of their last 10 games – as many defeats as they had suffered in their previous 105 games. And Ruben Dias and Ilkay Gündogan both spoke after City faced the prospect of a play-off to reach the last sixteen of the Champions League after a 2-0 defeat at Juventus on Thursday evening.
Next up it's Manchester United in the derby.
That Walker didn't feel compelled to talk as captain prompted one Blues social media account to reflect: “We haven't heard from the Manchester City captain in five games.”
Walker, of course, has his own podcast – but 'You'll Never Beat Kyle Walker' is now being used as a stick to beat him with. The 34-year-old has won just two of the games he has started this season. The way his form has fallen off a cliff is a microcosm of City's season.
The four-in-a-row champions face a host of problems that have combined to create the perfect storm.
Manager Pep Guardiola signed a two-year contract extension last month. But the lack of clarity about his future made it more difficult for sporting director Txiki Begiristain to arrange the necessary transfer matters during the summer.
Walker, Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones, Bernardo Silva, Mateo Kovacic and goalkeepers Ederson and Stefan Ortega are all in their 30s. Gundogan, one of only two new signings, was brought back from Barcelona despite being just five months younger than Walker.
Then there are the 130 charges from the Premier League that have been hanging like a dark cloud over Etihad for almost a year. City insist they are innocent on all counts, but the threat of expulsion from the Premier League is a clear and present danger to new recruits.
Begiristain has been a pillar of City's success since arriving in Manchester 12 years ago, but the Spaniard is leaving at the end of the season and may have taken his eye off the ball.
Guardiola, for all his brilliance, has failed to find a replacement for Rodri, the Ballon d'Or-winning midfielder who has been sidelined this season with a cruciate injury. Foden has been struck by a mystery illness that has made it impossible for him to reproduce the form that made him Footballer of the Year.
Key defenders Dias, Stones, Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake have also spent time in the treatment room. Guardiola once again spoke of being exhausted ahead of the match against Juve. The question must be asked whether the 53-year-old Catalan has the energy to oversee a rebuild with incoming football director Hugo Viana.
Any talk of Guardiola's job being on the line would be hugely premature given he has won 18 trophies in his eight years at Manchester. But he must come up with solutions to prevent City's campaign from falling apart completely.
One of Begiristain's final acts will be to deliver someone to fill Rodri's boots. There is talk of Real Sociedad's Martin Zubimendi, but the Spanish midfielder has already rejected a move to Liverpool. Atalanta's aggressive Brazilian international Ederson is another name in the frame.
But first Guardiola must figure out a solution to the individual and collective mistakes that are costing City goals in every match. Dias spoke about it before the defeat in Turin. His inability to hold a high line led to Weston McKinnie slamming home Juventus' second goal after keeper Ederson had blundered for Dusan Vlahovic's opener.
Gündogan insisted: “I feel like we know exactly what is going wrong. We know the reasons. Each player has to push themselves individually to get better. It just feels like we're not strong enough right now and we have to work on that.
“Individually and collectively, everyone has to question themselves and try to figure out what needs to change and what they need to do to contribute to the team in the best possible way. I don't think we're playing that bad, but something is missing.
“But it is not the time to give away the whole season, because there are still so many games to play. But we have to turn things around quickly.”
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