Manchester City hopes to end a five-game losing streak in all competitions when they visit Feyenoord at The Etihad this evening in the Champions League.

Former Coventry City player Viktor Gyokeres scored a hat-trick to help the Cityzens lose their last European game to Sporting 4-1.

Pep Guardiola’s squad comes into this game having just suffered a humiliating 4-0 Premier League loss to Tottenham Hotspur at The Etihad on Sunday.

Manuel Akanji is one player who might be left out of the starting lineup for the match against the Dutch team, and the Spanish coach will be hoping for a strong response from his team.

Why it is necessary to fire Manuel Akanji

The Switzerland international, who has played both center defense and right back for Manchester City, started the game in the midst of the back three, with Josko Gvardiol and Kyle Walker on either side of him.

Unfortunately, the former Borussia Dortmund player was unable to lead the defense line without Ruben Dias, and the Cityzens made four careless concedes during the match.

Akanji failed to stop James Maddison from getting a shot off twice in the first half and lost five of his eight ground duels against Spurs, indicating that the opposition outplayed him most of the time.

Nathan Ake might be placed back into the starting lineup to see if there is a turnaround at the defense after coming off the bench in the defeat to Tottenham.

Guardiola must also lose faith in experienced midfielder Ilkay Gundogan, so Akanji is not the only player who should be mercilessly cut from the squad.

The rationale of dropping Ilkay Gunodgan

Since returning to The Etihad on a free transfer from Barcelona during the summer transfer window, the German has struggled and isn’t doing enough to earn a spot in the starting lineup.

Gundogan started against Tottenham and played the full 90 minutes of the 4-0 defeat. City, along with their defensive struggles, failed to offer much in attack.

Despite having a whopping 101 touches of the ball, the Cityzens midfielder did not create a single ‘big chance’ for his team and the two key passes that he made equated to just 0.10 xA.

The Manchester Evening News awarded him a 3/10 rating for his performance and wrote that it was a ‘horror show’ from the dud who is ‘struggling badly’.

The table above shows how miserably Gundogan has performed in the Premier League since rejoining the team, as reported by the MEN.

He has yet to score a goal or create a “big chance” in the Premier League, and his lack of influence when in possession, even with more than 100 touches, is indicative of his poor ball skills.

Guardiola must thus abandon his belief in his City favorite and substitute another player. It’s unclear if Kevin de Bruyne is well enough to start, although Matheus Nunes and James McAtee are backup choices.