Bernardo Silva admits the international break cannot come soon enough for Pep Guardiola ’s Manchester City flops.
The English champions were left stunned in the wake of their 4-1 thrashing by Sporting Lisbon in Portugal on Tuesday night. City have now lost three straight games in all competitions for the first time since 2018.
It was also City’s heaviest defeat under Guardiola since 2020. Silva admits there can be no excuses, and has urged Guardiola’s players to take a hard look at themselves in the mirror.
And he reckons the upcoming international break will be a good thing for the 2023 Treble winners. Silva said: “We have to take responsibility and accept that we’re not doing things well and we need to do better.
“There are now excuses with the players that we have at the moment. We need to perform better to be at the higher level. But just look at ourselves individually, collectively, and see what we can do better, because we need to turn things around.
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“We have one more game before the international break, which will definitely be good for us. Because at the moment, with the injuries that we have, and with the psychological part as well, it will be good to have that rest.
“But before that we have a big game again, a very tough game. Brighton away is never easy. Three points would help massively to keep us in the (title) race, or in a good position to come back and be still close to the top.
“We’ll look at ourselves and try to do better on Saturday.” Guardiola has suffered mounting injury problems in recent weeks.
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But Silva is hoping the return of the likes of Kevin De Bruyne will help City get their season back on track. He added: “We cannot find excuses and we need to do better with the players that we have at the minute.
“But we cannot deny that the guys that we have injured and are not available are a big miss. They are big players for us and they will definitely help when they’re fit.
“With Kevin, with Kyle (Walker), with Rodri, with Ruben (Dias) now back as well, and some other players that can be back very soon. We need them and they have to come back as quickly as possible.”