‘We’re in a dark place’

After Man City’s shock 1-4 defeat to Sporting Lisbon, Bernardo Silva says team needs to get better quickly or it will be difficult to bounce back from losses

Bernardo Silva admitted Manchester City are in a “dark place” after their shock 1-4 humiliation at Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League, but Pep Guardiola vowed to solve his spluttering side’s problems. 

Viktor Gyokeres’s hat-trick and a series of costly City misses condemned Guardiola’s men to three successive defeats for the first time since 2018. 

Also Read: Utd cannot play the way Sporting do: Amorim

Bernardo Silva

Adding to City’s misery was the sight of Sporting boss Ruben Amorim celebrating a remarkable victory in his final home game before leaving the Portuguese champions to take charge of Manchester United on November 11. 

Heaviest defeat since 2020

City’s heaviest defeat since 2020 meant, for only the second time in the Guardiola era, they had suffered three consecutive losses in a single season. After making a strong start to the season, the Premier League champions were beaten by Tottenham in the League Cup last week before losing at Bournemouth on Saturday in their first top-flight defeat since December. 

City’s unexpected malaise comes amid a rash of injuries to key players including Rodri, Ruben Dias, John Stones, Jack Grealish and Kevin De Bruyne, who was only fit enough for a brief substitute appearance at the Jose Alvalade stadium. It was a painful return to Portugal for Lisbon-born Silva, who conceded City are mired in a damaging slump.

“It’s disappointing because we’re a bit in a dark place right now. Everything looks to be going in the wrong way,” he said. “Even when we are playing well we don’t score our chances and we concede too easily. We need to get better very quickly otherwise it will be very difficult to come back from these losses. 

Injured players missed sorely

“It’s difficult to find reasons for what is happening to us. It just looks like this team is going the wrong way now. Our injured players need to come back because we need them and it’s just not good enough tonight.”

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