12 January 2023 , 18:37
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Ilkay Gundogan has accused his Manchester City team-mates of a lack of desire and the wrong attitude – ahead of tomorrow's derby showdown.
Pep Guardiola's side were dumped out of the EFL Cup after losing 2-0 at Southampton on Wednesday, with midfielder Gundogan not holding back on what went wrong. Gundogan claimed City have been missing something in recent weeks and said Guardiola's players have not been showing the same desire that has brought them such success in recent years.
The damning comments came as Guardiola tries to lift his players for the trip to resurgent local rivals Manchester United, who will be out to avenge their 6-3 defeat earlier this season.
“Definitely I would share that it was a lack of attitude, lack of confidence, lack of commitment you know,” said Gundogan. “I feel like, especially today, but even in the last few weeks, we had games where we could have done better.
“Maybe we’ve won games, but I feel like something was a little bit missing, something’s off. Obviously, with the quality we have in the squad, we're always able to win games, even when we don't have the best day.
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“But at the moment it feels like there’s a special recipe missing in the team - performances, the desire and hunger is maybe not as it was in recent years.
"It's tough, against even a side that's struggling a little bit in the Premier League right now, but we knew that Southampton was always tough to play, always very aggressive and always able to score a goal.
Gundogan is furious with his team-mates after the Southampton defeat (Getty Images)“Unfortunately we made it too easy for them and in the end we need to admit that with a performance like that, we deserved to lose. “Hopefully it was the right wake-up call for us. If it is it’s something good we can take out of the game.
“We have to do better, we need to start the hard work again and be humble, because things will not come to us automatically - we need to deserve them."
On the derby against United, Gundogan said: "It can be a chance, straight away, to make things better. Obviously the derby is the derby, it's a completely different game.
"For us, playing at Old Trafford in recet years is a good memory or was a good memory, but we also know we probably play against the best United side we have faced in recent years, full of confidence, full of commitment.
"With the players they got in over the summer, it feels like it's clicking right now in their squad, so it'sgoing to be a very tough one. But we need to be up for the challenge, we need to put in a much better performance. Evrn though I'm still frustrated and disappointed about the game, I'm confident we are able to play a good game and get a good result."