Ilkay Gundogan lays bare exactly what Man City must do to beat Liverpool and end wretched run | OneFootball

Suffering a terrible slump in form, Manchester City are in uncharted waters and Ilkay Gundogan has not minced his words expressing how important this Sunday’s clash against Liverpool really is.

City have dominated in recent years, winning four straight Premier League titles — and six of the last seven — the treble in 2022/23 and at least one major trophy in each of the last seven campaigns.

However, Pep Guardiola’s men are in the midst of an incredible run of six games without a win. That includes a five-match losing sequence that only ended with a 3-3 draw against Feyenoord, in which they threw away a 3-0 lead inside the last 15 minutes to draw 3-3.

The last month has seen City exit the EFL Cup, fall eight points behind Liverpool in the title race and slip to 17th in the Champions League table, only four points clear of the elimination zone.

The statistical differences in City’s performances during this run compared to before it are quite terrifying if you’re of a sky-blue persuasion. Guardiola’s side have averaged just 1.17 goals per game during this six-game slump compared to 2.38 before it, while their chances created have dropped from 17.38 to 14.5 and their goals conceded have rocketed up to 2.83 from 0.77.

As if things needed to get any tougher, City travel to Anfield this weekend for a match that might well define the rest of their season. Win, and the gap on Liverpool is closed to just five points, with the harm done by this awful run relatively small in the grand scheme of an entire season. But lose, and an 11-point gap on Arne Slot’s rampant side — who are fresh from beating Real Madrid 2-0 — may well be insurmountable.

That’s the view of veteran midfielder Gundogan, who has given a frank view of the situation as the daunting trip to Merseyside races into view.

“To stay in the title race probably yes, because 11 points would be a huge gap,” he responded when asked after the Feyenoord match if City must not lose on Sunday. “It’s still early in the season. There are still a lot of games to play and a lot of things can happen, not just on our side but at every other team.

“But obviously, we have to look at ourselves and try to do the things we can do better, as quickly as possible. We take it, stay humble, head down and try to put in the work in the next few days and prepare as well as possible for a tough game.

“Right now it is [mentally] tougher. Today feels like a loss. If we lose 2-0 at home obviously we would be disappointed but the way we did it today, urgh, could have only been worse if we’d conceded a fourth goal and lost the game.

“The sensation right now, if I’m honest, is a big disappointment. But, again, football is football and football sometimes creates incredible moments and difficult moments that you have to face.

“You only get through it when you face it, when you accept it, when you get challenged and you try to do your best to get out of this situation as quickly as possible.

“Anfield is always tough, no matter the situation. We’ve struggled in recent years going there. We know Liverpool are a great team full of confidence right now. It’s going to be as tough as it is possible to be. But that sums up the situation right now.

“It seems we have to go through this season the toughest way possible. Obviously, we’ve done this ourselves a little bit but hopefully, we can get out of that as quickly as possible, especially in such a big game. It would give us a boost to perform well and then obviously to get something out of the game. That is how we will approach the game.”

Many will point to Rodri’s injury as the catalyst for City’s downfall and to an extent, that’s true. However, Guardiola still has an eye-watering amount of elite talent at his disposal, including Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, Ruben Dias, Ederson and Bernardo Silva.

City’s biggest lights need to shine brightly now before it’s too late. But as the saying goes, without pressure there can be no diamonds.

The cauldron of Anfield on Sunday will teach us much about what this Rodri-less City side is made of.