17 hours Ago By [email protected] (David McDonnell)
Manuel Akanji is adamant Manchester City will emerge from their current crisis and rediscover the imperious form that made them the best team in the world . City are in the midst of their worst run under Pep Guardiola , with just one win in 13 games in all competitions, including nine defeats in that miserable sequence. The fallen champions have slumped to seventh in the Premier League , 14 points behind leaders Liverpool , with the title gone and a Champions League spot now their only realistic target.
Against that backdrop, City's ability to haul themselves out of their malaise has been questioned, but defender Akanji is convinced they will soon come out of the other side. “I still believe that we will come back to the way we used to play,” said Akanji, after their 1-1 draw with Everton on Boxing Day. “It will come sooner or later.
“We need to keep on working. There's nothing else we can do at the moment. What do you expect us to do? Change system? Play other players? “As a team, we were able to play this way before.
Sometimes you have a bad run and things don't go your way, so it's good to look at things that aren't working out that well right now. “But you shouldn't be at the point where you're changing everything, because not everything was good before and not everything is bad now. “We need to keep on working and the next opportunity is in a few days.
It takes confidence away. It boosts confidence when you win matches and you lose confidence when you lose matches.” City were without eight first-team players for the Everton draw and lost Nathan Ake during the game, putting more pressure on Guardiola's already depleted squad.
“I don't know if Nathan's really injured, we will see how he feels,” said Akanji. “Maybe it was just for safety, because he came back and we have another match in a few days. “But we played with the squad like this for two years since I was here and it worked out.
We've had lots of injuries, so it's not easy at the moment. Even now we will find a way and come out of this and luck will come again on our side. “Everybody wants to stay fit, nobody wants to be injured, but the most important thing is that players who are healthy need to stay healthy.
“But it's not always that easy when you play so many matches a year and you don't really have time to recover. I have friends of mine who are on holidays now recovering for the second part of the season - we don't have that. “We need to try to find a way that these players playing now stay healthy so that we can get the other guys back and rotate a bit more and rest those who need to rest.
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