Man City players urged not to panic despite dismal defeat against Leverkusen

Tijjani Reijnders urged Manchester City not to panic after consecutive defeats stalled their momentum.

City lost at Newcastle United in controversial circumstances at the weekend before Pep Guardiola admitted to making mistakes in ringing the changes for the defeat by Bayer Leverkusen.

Reijnders was one of 10 new faces for the Champions League tie and believes they can bounce back over the coming weeks – starting against Leeds United on Saturday.

‘Of course it’s a bummer,’ Reijnders said. ‘We should not lose our confidence because we did great before and we have to get back on that winning streak and that’s by being ready for the next game on Saturday.

‘We should not panic now. Of course losing two times in a row is not a good thing but we know there are still plenty of chances this season and we have to go game to game.’

City had lost just once in their previous 14 matches before Newcastle and face Fulham and Sunderland before a daunting trip to Real Madrid on December 10.

Stand-in captain John Stones claimed that the defeat at the hands of Leverkusen could take some time to get over.

‘The mood is not good (in the dressing room),’ Stones said. ‘It's a difficult one to summarise really. A lot of emotion, I think it's going to have to be one we have to look back at.

‘I think we weren't good enough as a collective. Lots of things (were missing). You can dissect and look at it in so many different angles but I think all in all we didn't have that edge, clinical edge, aggressive edge.

‘We lacked in quite a few things which is uncharacteristic for us as a team and as players, and we're all disappointed, I'm disappointed to have led the team out.’