GUN OFF THE BOIL Ilkay in wake-up call

ILKAY GUNDOGAN says Manchester City have “lost focus” since landing successive Premier League titles.

City tackle Dinamo Zagreb in their final Group C Champions League clash tonight with a place in the knockout stages in the bag.

Yet the Germany midfielder agreed with boss Pep Guardiola’s assessment earlier this week that they need to move up a gear having let their performances dip.

“It’s just in general and in life, if you are successful and have won so many things sometimes you lose focus in that period,” said Gundogan.

“The more defeats you have you recognise that’s not the way you want to end up, you want to improve again. It’s now the challenge to bounce back.”

Guardiola conceded after Saturday’s derby defeat to Manchester United – a fourth from GIDEON BROOKS league loss in 16 games – that his side were struggling to match the cream of Europe.

Last night he added: “To reach that level we have to improve some departments in the boxes. Right now we are not ready but in February maybe we are better and after that anything can happen.” If Gundogan and Guardiola are to be proved right, much will depend on players returning from injury. John Stones has added to the Spaniard’s list of troubles with a hamstring injury.

The central defender looks likely to be out for weeks, making Aymeric Laporte’s return before the Champions League knockout stages all the more crucial. Until then, Gundogan called for the side to pull together starting by rounding off their campaign in Zagreb with a performance worthy of group winners.

“It’s not unusual after two great seasons, it’s even tougher to do three in a row but it’s also the challenge if you want to be on top to play the same kind of football every season,” he said.

“It’s normal to have this period but the only way out is to stick together and try to come back to what we’ve done in the past.

“Every single player has to take responsibility to reach his best level again.

“The sooner we can do that the sooner we’ll be successful again.”

City will give a first competition start to Eric Garcia, 18, in a centre-half pairing with Nicolas Otamendi.

They look sure to get a rigorous workout given Dinamo, Shakhtar Donetsk and Atalanta could all still go through as runners-up.