Jamie Carragher has claimed that Manchester City might need to ‘rebuild’ one aspect of their squad amid their ongoing struggles.
City were humbled at home as they lost 4-0 against Tottenham, with James Maddison netting a brace and Pedro Porro and Brennan Johnson also scoring in the rout.
It was the fifth loss in a row for City in all competitions, including three Premier League matches, and they could fall as far 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 likened them to a similar issue Liverpool struggled with.
He said: ‘It’s midfield (that is the biggest worry). Rodri is obviously a big miss but the problem they’ve got is the players they’ve brought in – Kovacic struggles when he’s left isolated.
‘Against West Ham for example, the press was not quite there and was always late, then Kovacic gets caught in no man’s land and before you know it West Ham have gone down and scored.
In the Carabao Cup against Tottenham, this time it’s Gundogan. Again the Man City press is not right, Kulusevski goes one way and then the other and leaves Gundogan. Before you know it, he’s chasing back and is 34 years of age, he hasn’t got the legs to get back.
They’re really struggling in the centre of midfield, there’s no doubt about that. Rodri is a huge miss, but it’s the player profile of players they’ve brought in (that’s the problem).
‘In terms of Pep, he’s coming up with things and trying to fix it but it actually alleviated the problems there (against Tottenham). What I would say, this analysis we’re doing right now, I did this same analysis two years ago on Jordan Henderson and Fabinho.
‘What I’m talking about with Gundogan and Kovacic, this is not players out of form, this is not going to change. Henderson and Fabinho in those positions ended up moving on. And Liverpool had to rebuild in midfield.
That’s what Manchester City are going to have to do. Whatever Pep thinks of, there’s not enough legs in that midfield right now to change what we’re seeing as well.’
Recently, Pep Guardiola admitted that he isn’t surprised by City’s current struggles
As report said: ‘It’s not like we’ve been like this for years, but I said before that sooner or later it should have happened.
‘I know we won and won again, but sooner or later you have this situation for many reasons, little reasons why.
‘It’s not “this is the reason why”, it’s little things going wrong from the beginning of the season that are getting worse. Now we have to face it.
You cannot say anything, the situation is where you have to keep going my friends, keep going. We’ve done it in the past. Not as bad as now in terms of results, but we have done it and faced the situation and moved forward.’
