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Guardiola won’t be happy with Man City midfielder after Saturday’s performance [Opinion]

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Manchester City suffered a 2-1 defeat at home to Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon and Ilkay Gundogan was one of many players who underperformed.

The 32-year-old started alongside Kevin De Bruyne and Rodri but didn’t justify Pep Guardiola’s decision and wouldn’t have impressed his manager with a below-par showing.

Gundogan failed to make a tackle, failed to register a shot on target, failed to make a successful dribble, failed to whip in an accurate cross and made fewer passes than all but one outfield player. Only Stefan Ortega and Erling Haaland made fewer touches than Gundogan either, which is unusual for a midfielder.

Tyrone Marshall of the Manchester Evening News gave the German international a player rating of 4/10 and said he was guilty of ‘loose passes’ while being culpable for Brentford’s winning goal. SofaScore gave him a player rating of 6.6/10 which was the lowest score out of any City player.

Gundogan has made 20 appearances in all competitions, scoring two goals with two assists. The 32-year-old was recently named in Germany’s World Cup squad, so he’ll hope to put Saturday’s performance behind him. It’s not the best way to sign off for City, however.

In other news, Pep Guardiola clarifies Man City future amid contract uncertainty

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Can you name these Man City players from the 2000s? Test your knowledge, take the quiz and challenge your friends and family to beat your score

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He joined from Newcastle in 2000 and left to join FC Sochaux in 2003

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Sports journalist who is an avid football fan, enjoys debunking transfer rumours, loves to write pieces about players out in the cold and takes a large amount of pride getting a predicted XI 100% correct.