Gael Clichy says Man City were missing ‘crucial thing’ against Feyenoord that cost them dearly

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Manchester City picked up another disappointing result in their latest Champions League outing.

Tuesday night saw City take on Feyenoord at the Etihad Stadium to try and get back to winning ways after losing their five previous matches.

Despite being 3-0 up with 53 minutes on the clock, Pep Guardiola saw his side concede three goals in the space of 14 minutes to walk away with just a draw but with a presumed taste of defeat.

At full-time, a former City player highlighted one thing he felt Guardiola’s team were lacking that led to them blowing the three points they had their hands on in the second half.

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Gael Clichy shares what Man City were missing against Feyenoord

Speaking as part of Amazon Prime Video Sport’s punditry panel, Gael Clichy said this about what went wrong for City against Feyenoord and what they were missing on the night.

He said: “You cannot keep continuing to make individual mistakes. You can do as much as you want but if your players individually are failing, something like this today will happen. That has happened in the last six matches.

“They are missing a vocal leader. A strong leader at the back. It is not a crisis but we are talking about a huge mountain to climb.”

Clichy gave City a rallying cry for Liverpool showdown

Despite questioning the leadership City had on display in the crucial moments against Feyenoord, the former left-back gave an encouraging message ahead of the Manchester club’s upcoming Premier League clash with Liverpool.

He said: “Liverpool is probably the perfect game for City to go again. They go to Anfield and they have to be 100 per cent focused.

“Today they did not take the chances to kill the game. You have to take chances.

“You can’t go to Liverpool feeling sorry for yourself and you have to take positives going into that. You need to dig deep and find that form and go on the road to Liverpool and get a positive result. City have it in them.”

In terms of Clichy’s point about City missing a vocal leader at the back against Feyenoord, the first name that springs to mind in this particular instance is Ruben Dias.

Having been out injured for the past few weeks, the centre-back was an unused substitute in midweek, meaning that he could well play a part in Sunday’s big game at Anfield if deemed fit enough.

Sticking with the Portuguese international, Ally McCoist said City miss Dias, mainly due to the defensive stability he gives the team.

Moving forward, City still find themselves in need of getting themselves together mentally and physically and delivering the sort of performance that can set the team back up and secure a much-needed victory.