Nathan Ake has revealed that Manchester City’s senior players held a meeting last month to address the champions’ poor run of form.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, the defender said City’s captains’ group, consisting of Kyle Walker, Kevin De Bruyne, Ruben Dias, Rodri and Bernardo Silva, met amid a run of one win in six Premier League matches that dropped City down to fourth in the table, six points behind then leaders Arsenal.
“We had a big get-together organised by the captains and we had a good talk with each other,” Ake told Telegraph Sport.
“Not to hammer each other but to be honest that everyone has to look at themselves to see what we can do better because this is not what we want.
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“We want to win games and get the season going again and we had to do it now while there were still so many games to go.
“The time was still there to do it because we would rather have had the conversation then than in five weeks when we could have been even more points behind.”
City have since responded with back-to-back wins over Everton and Sheffield United that have lifted the side to third, five points behind leaders Liverpool with a match in hand ahead of a trip to Newcastle United on Saturday.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Arsenal
ARS
|
36 | +60 | 83 |
| 2 |
Man City
MCI
|
35 | +54 | 82 |
| 3 |
Liverpool
LIV
|
35 | +41 | 75 |
| 4 |
Aston Villa
AVL
|
35 | +21 | 67 |
| 5 |
Spurs
TOT
|
34 | +13 | 60 |
“We talked with each other about it to try to understand and make sure everyone was on the same page - that we don’t just play the victim card of deflections or a difficult moment,” Ake added.
The get-together was similar to one called three years ago by former City captain Fernandinho on New Year’s Day after a sub-par training session. That meeting helped inspire City to a third Premier League title in four years.
“We have to do better as individual players and defenders but everyone was allowed to say whatever they wanted and we picked it up.
“We set the standards really high for ourselves. So it’s a good thing that we still have this character to keep going.”
The defender added that their title rivals slipping up over the festive period also helped to inspire the team ahead of the fixtures against Everton and Sheff Utd.
“We struggled a bit at one point but the gap is not too big so that motivated us as well.
“[We said], ‘Okay, win these two games and we’re there again and can compete again’, knowing normally towards the end of the season we start to kick on and hopefully we’re going to do the same.”
