Ilkay Gundogan
Ilkay Gundogan has played down talks of player unhappiness at Manchester City after Bernardo Silva and Raheem Sterling endured time on the bench as they struggled for form. Gundogan, who scored an assisted in the win over West Ham as the champions moved into second, sympathises with any team-mate not picked but underlined the realities of playing for a top club.
Ilkay Gundogan said “The only thing you can do is try to support them as much as possible, to help them to train well. In our team the players know their responsibility, they know we are all professionals even though we face difficult periods in our career, we need to be able to deal with that. All of us had to do it in our careers. It’s something you have to get used to and deal with – it’s disappointment and frustration. But they both feel very comfortable in the team with the players we have here. There’s a lot of good friendships and I don’t think it was ever an issue. The other players don’t feel they have to do much, we knew they had enough quality to come back.”
