The five captains lead the meeting! Manchester City defenders reveal the inside story of the team The European treble is no accident
In the early morning of January 13, Beijing time, Manchester City's main defender Ake was interviewed by James Ducker, a well-known reporter of the British "Daily Telegraph", and revealed some exclusive information about the club. According to him, the City Big 5 captain held an internal meeting last month to make sure no one played the "so-called victim card" or made "excuses" after a poor result threatened the Premier League goal of a fourth consecutive title. This is also a sigh: Manchester City's European treble victory last season and the impressive results of these years are no accident.
Last summer, Manchester City's decorated captain Ilkay Gundogan joined the team on a free transfer when his contract expired. Following his departure, City have selected a squad five for the new season, with Kyle Walker, Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri, Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva joining forces to lead City forward. However, in the first round of the Premier League, De Bruyne was sidelined for more than five months due to injury, and did not return until the FA Cup third round against Huddersfield Town last week.
In Tintin's absence, Manchester City's attack did encounter great difficulties, without his clever passing, Manchester City's attack could only rely more on the individual ability of the players, and the top scorer Haaland's playing time and running coverage had to be greatly improved in order to get more scoring opportunities. In this case, Manchester City's record has also been affected quite a bit. In the 12th-15th round of the Premier League, Manchester City was tied by Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur in the lead, and then lost 0-1 to Aston Villa in the away game, scoring only 3 points in 4 rounds, and the ranking also fell out of the top four in the Premier League.
And the internal meeting that Ake mentioned actually happened after Manchester City's four-game winless run in the Premier League. The captain of the 5 teams, led by Kyle Walker, called a meeting of the players in the locker room to cheer everyone on. According to Ake, the meeting was a great success, with the players communicating openly and honestly with each other, working together to find solutions to problems rather than blaming each other.
In fact, it is not the first time that a similar captain's meeting has met at Manchester City. In the previous two seasons, Fernandinho and Gundogan had done the same, cheering on their team-mates at key moments to cheer them up, and as a result, Manchester City first won the Premier League title in a row, and last season they won the European treble. This time, City's situation is more dire, but it has also paid off. Manchester City won seven of the next eight games in all competitions, lifted the Club World Cup, won three consecutive Premier League games, and finished in the top three ahead of Arsenal.
One thing to say, among the European giants, Manchester City's dressing room atmosphere is the best, last season's main full-back Cancelo was sent directly to Bayern Munich as soon as he showed some signs of trouble in the dressing room, and this season he was loaned to Barcelona, without any delay. This kind of unity and harmony team atmosphere is the biggest magic weapon for Manchester City to win the Premier League five times in seven years and reach the top of Europe last season to win the treble.