Jamie Redknapp has slammed a Manchester City star for their ‘basic’ defending during the first half of his side’s game against Tottenham.
CIty were shell-shocked in the first half of the game, going into the break 2-0 down after a brace from James Maddison continued City’s struggles and put them at risk of losing a fifth game in a row.
The first goal was telling of their issues, with Ilkay Gundogan failing to track Maddison, trying to pass him onto John Stones, who was already occupied and unable to get to the midfielder before he could score.
That was only the first goal of the game, with Ballon d’Or winner Rodri‘s absence still telling as he sits out the season with an ACL injury.
Meteo Kovacic has been deputising, but he too is now absent and will be out for around a month. Rico Lewis and Ilkay Gundogan was the midfield solution of choice against Tottenham, but that backfired in spectacular fashion.
And Redknapp took aim at Gundogan on Sky Sports during the half time break, slamming his defensive effort.
‘Good play by Spurs, for 13 minutes they couldn’t get the ball,’ Redknapp said. ‘Kulusevski is too strong, exquisite ball. Can you get the left foot on it?
‘It doesn’t matter if there’s no Rodri, what Gundogan does here is really basic, it’s so wrong, You have to match that run. When he passes him on it is too late. You have to go. That is part of being a central midfield player.’
Gundogan rejoined City in the summer from Barcelona having left the club a year prior on the back of captaining them to their Treble win of the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.
