- Manchester City fell to their fifth consecutive defeat after losing 4-0 to Tottenham
- Jamie Carragher has suggested City may have to “rebuild” part of the squad
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Jamie Carragher has claimed that Manchester City may need to “rebuild” an aspect of their squad amid their current struggles.
City were humiliated at home by losing 4-0 against Tottenham, with James Maddison scoring a brace and Pedro Porro and Brennan Johnson also scoring in the rout.
It was City’s fifth consecutive defeat in all competitions, including three Premier League games, and they could fall as many as eight points behind Liverpool 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 struggled with.
He said: “It’s the midfield (that’s the biggest concern). Obviously, Rodri is a big mistake, but the problem they have is the players they have brought in – Kovacic has problems when he is left isolated.
“Against West Ham, for example, the press weren’t at all present and were always late, then Kovacic gets caught in no man’s land and before you know it, West Ham are down and scoring.
Manchester City is in crisis mode after falling to five consecutive defeats in all competitions
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher believes he has identified the area they need to “rebuild”.
‘In the Carabao Cup against Tottenham, this time it’s Gundogan. Once again the Manchester City press is wrong, Kulusevski goes one way and then the other and abandons Gundogan. Before you know it, he’s chasing and he’s 34 years old, he doesn’t have the legs to come back.
“They are suffering a lot in the center of the field, there is no doubt about that.” Rodri is a big mistake, but it is the profile of the players they have brought in (that is the problem).
“In terms of Pep, he is coming up with things and trying to fix them, but he actually alleviated the problems there (against Tottenham). What I would say, this analysis we are doing now, I did the same analysis two years ago on Jordan Henderson and Fabinho.
“What I’m talking about with Gundogan and Kovacic is not that the players are out of shape, this is not going to change. Henderson and Fabinho in those positions ended up moving forward. And Liverpool had to rebuild in the midfield.
“That’s what Manchester City will have to do. Whatever Pep thinks, there aren’t enough legs in that midfield at the moment to change what we’re seeing too.”
Recently, Pep Guardiola admitted that he is not surprised by City’s current problems.
Liverpool have been forced to replace Jordan Henderson (left) and Fabinho (right) in recent years.
Carragher suggested Pep Guardiola might also have to rebuild his midfield
As reported by The mirrorGuardiola said: “It’s not that we’ve been like this for years, but I said before that sooner or later it should have happened.”
“I know that we won and we won again, but sooner or later you get to this situation for many reasons, although few.
“It’s not about ‘this is why’, but about little things that have been going wrong since the beginning of the season and are getting worse. Now we have to face it.
‘You can’t say anything, the situation is that you have to move on, my friends, move on. We have done it in the past. “Not as bad as now in terms of results, but we have done it, we have faced the situation and we have moved on.”