Gundogan reflects on Man City rotation policy amid drop from team

Ilkay Gundogan says every player in the Manchester City squad must keep the highest levels in training and during games as he reflected on the Blues’ recent form.

Gundogan has been a key player this season, especially when Kevin De Bruyne was injured, but has seemingly fallen out of favour in the last month and has started just one of City’s last six Premier League fixtures.

The German was an unused substitute at Newcastle before Christmas, before playing the full 90 minutes in the Boxing Day clash with Leicester. He was left on the bench again at Brentford as Pep Guardiola rotated over the Christmas week, but only played the last 28 minutes next time out at Arsenal. He started and scored in the FA Cup win at Swindon, before returning to the bench against Chelsea at the weekend.

As one of Guardiola’s longest-serving players and most experienced in the squad, Gundogan knows all about the rotation policy employed by his manager.

And he reflected on that in a new interview this week as he hinted at players taking responsibility for their own performances in training and during games.

“It is one thing to be as a team, but individually we also have to keep very high levels because if you don’t play well or are out of form or lose focus you’re not going to play,” he said.

“You will lose your place. We have a wealth of talent in the squad and a lot of players so you have to take responsibility to ensure you’re always in the best level to play.

“We have a big squad with amazing players so every time you play, you have to be ready and at the top of your game. If not and you struggle you may be out for four or five games. Be ready for every single one and if every single one does that we are a team that can have all the different competitions because we’ll always be ready to go and be able to win a lot of games.”

Gundogan reflected on City’s progress so far this season, with a 12-game winning run in the Premier League propelling them into a commanding position in the title race.

Despite that, Gundogan was keen to stress that nothing is won in January and urged his teammates to continue their high levels until the end of the season.

He explained: “It’s been a special year but we’ve just done what our potential and capabilities provide us. By trying to reach them every day in training and in games, trying to reach them always gives us the best chances of winning games.

“Going into a winning streak similar to the beginning of last year and now again. It’s being aware of the responsibilities we have and then the manager is guiding us and gives us instructions for the game. With the exceptional players we have we always have really good chances to win games. It’s not always that simple, but it’s always the guidelines for ourselves.

“It’s a race but just about halfway through I don’t think anything is done yet – we need to do same things we have been doing in the last few weeks,” he said.

“We know we will drop points at some stage, but after that, we need to go again. the best thing we can do is focus on ourselves and go game by game and take the steps necessary.”