With just seven points from the first four games of the Champions League, Manchester City are not even among the first eight teams, which are guaranteed automatic playoffs under the new format of the competition. The Citizens are in a terrible run of five defeats in all competition, the Champions League included, where they suffered a 4-1 humiliation from a second-placed Sporting, just before the international break. On paper, Feyenoord shouldn‘t be such a big problem, especially since they are coming to Etihad, but then again, Tottenham also scored four goals at this stadium during the weekend.Don’t ever underestimate the heart of a championAhead of the game, coach Pep Guardiola, made two things very clear: his player‘s legacy is on the line here, and he won‘t change anything, even after five straight loses.“We come from the very top so we can only go down if we lose. We deserve some patience when we lose games. It will not be a big mess. You are defending a legacy, tradition, success and that is so difficult to handle. If we don’t do it, try to focus on short periods of time and win the next games. What I want is commitment from players to still do what we have to do. We will congratulate the team that takes our crown because they deserve it, not because we deliver it to them, give it to them” said the Spanish tactician at the press conference. Kulusevski revealed how Spurs defeated CityThe journalist wanted to know if some changes are on the horizon, considering the unusual amount of defeats, which never happened before. But according to City‘s coach, that won‘t happen. “What should I change? If I should change in my first season at City maybe we would not win six Premier Leagues in seven years. I am not going to change. The success we have had, we are big believers in the process and the fundamentals we have to do. What we have to believe is the players who are injured come back to their best form, the players who have played a lot of minutes because of the injuries get some rest. One good result which can change our mind. Right now this shall pass. Nothing is eternal” said the Spaniard. Salah is not the only one: De Bruyne doesn’t have a clue eitherSo what is the problem if there is no problem? Pep thinks it‘s just injuries and has no problem of losing the title if the other team is better, but only if his players give 100%. “The analysis, from my point of view, right now is not that we are not getting results because we have 12 players around the 30-something age bracket. Of course they can drop. Tell me one team in the world that cannot drop a little bit after being beyond exceptional over many years. Now it is easy to say because we lost five games. It’s easy for the manager to say the mentality is not there or they don’t want it or it’s because we don’t run. I don’t believe in that. I learnt in these kind of situations not to make micro-analysis because it will be wrong. If we keep losing games we will be eighth or ninth in the table because it’s so tight, but we are still second. Maybe I didn’t expect to lose five in a row, but a drop should happen after the success that we had. It’s normal. But the analysis will be in December if we should do anything in the January transfer window or at the end of the year to be more solid next season” said Guardiola. ##NAJAVA_MECA_8528341##
