Man City 'alarm are bells ringing' as star players 'panic' - Expert

Man City stars have suffered a crisis of confidence inspired by injuries to key stars Rodri, Kevin de Bruyne, Ruben Dias and John Stones.

This is according to former Man United and Blackburn chief scout Mick Brown, who remains very well-connected within the game, as he exclusively told Football Insider that “alarm bells” are ringing at the Etihad as a result.

Brown explained that key injuries in Pep Guardiola’s side have caused a severe blow to their usual swagger and players are now beginning to panic in games.

It was said that, while usually there is confidence that if they lose the ball, their teammates will sweep up, that confidence has been knocked by recent results.

A 4-0 thrashing at home against Tottenham has raised further questions, with City having now lost five consecutive games.

Brown has warned that the team could continue to face a “downward spiral” if they cannot address their issues as it is difficult to overcome such a severe knock to their confidence.

Man City face confidence crisis after latest twist

Rodri, De Bruyne, Stones and Dias have missed a combined 32 games through injury this season – leaving Guardiola without four key players in his side.

Brown, who has a wealth of experience working closely with players at the top level including for over a decade at Man United during their most successful period, insisted that every club in the world experiences dips in confidence, and City are no exception.

“There are lots of marginal issues that end up building into a bigger problem,” he told Football Insider.

“That, in my judgement, is the biggest issue at Man City at the moment.

“You’ve had De Bruyne out injured, you’ve had Stones out, you’ve had Dias out, and you’ve got Rodri out. Those are four world-class players.

“If you think any team is good enough to lose four of their best players and be as good as they were before that, then I don’t know what to say.

“But what happens, more than just missing those players, in the impact on the team’s confidence.

“When balls used to go past players, they knew they had their teammates behind them to deal with it.

“All of a sudden, these aren’t being dealt with quite so effectively. Then everybody starts to panic.

“From there, it can be a bit of a downward spiral until you manage to turn things around.

“It can happen that quickly, confidence gets sucked out of a team and then alarm bells start ringing because that affects everything they do.

“The same is the case for every team in the world, and Man City are experiencing it now.”

In other news, Man City plot sensational move to re-sign Liam Delap.

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