We have to go back to basics, says Walker | OneFootball

Kyle Walker has urged City to dust themselves down and focus on the basics following the 4-0 Premier League defeat against Tottenham Hotspur.

The visitors secured the points after James Maddison's first-half brace, added to by second-half goals from Pedro Porro and Brennan Johnson.

The result means we have now lost five consecutive games in all competitions for the first time since April 2006 and lost a Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium for the first time since November 2022.

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Walker, who captained the team under the floodlights, was disappointed with the heavy defeat and is expecting the team to go back to the basics in an attempt to get back to winning ways.

"I've stood here when we won titles so I'll stand here for defeats too," said Walker after the game. "This is the most frustrating thing as a defender. I don't care about scoring goals, I'm not bothered about scoring goals, I’m bothered about clean sheets, and we're not doing that at the minute. It's something we need to change.

"You have to go back to the basics and get a clean sheet. Then you have a chance of winning the game If we concede four goals at home, what do you want our strikers to do? Go and score five?

"As defenders, we need to do a little bit more. We defend as a team and attack as a team. We score goals together and we’ll defend together. It's not just the back four, five or six, it's all 11 players on the pitch.

"I wouldn't say we've lost confidence together. I've spent eight years with this fantastic group of players and people. We’ve lost confidence as a team because we’ve not won for a long time. We have to remember what we've achieved together.

"But what we've achieved in the past means nothing, it's history. What matters is winning the Premier League now. We’re making it harder and harder for ourselves. We have one team above us doing really well. We'll keep fighting to the end as we always do.

"Hopefully the mojo comes back and we see the normal City from the past eight seasons. Practice makes permanent. Your powers don't just go. We as a team know our qualities and weaknesses. You get a win, you get your confidence, the mood lightens up and then we're back to how we used to feel."

The Englishman is looking for a swift response from the team, with Feyenoord upcoming in the Champions League on Tuesday night, before next Sunday's crunch league clash at Anfield against league-leaders Liverpool, who could be eight points clear by the end of the weekend.

"The best way to turn this round is on Tuesday," he declared. "We’ll try, we’ll come out and try to get three points.

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"It's a great game [Liverpool] to turn it around and take three points from the team who sit above you. But we can't put in a performance like that or we'll get walked over there.

"We have a Champions League game to prepare for that massive game on Sunday and make sure we can keep within touching distance of Liverpool."