City enter Wednesday’s Conti Cup curtain-raiser against Blackburn Rovers at the Academy Stadium on the back of successive victories in the league against Leicester and Tottenham.
And the boss believes a strong showing in the competition can act as a catalyst in our march up the table, as it did across 2021/22.
“You come to different competitions during the season and getting good performances and wins from those really help for the next game,” he reflected.
“It’s a good game for us, a home game and our first in the competition. We want to make a good start.
“It was obviously a great moment for us last year, winning [the Conti Cup].
“It’s a really competitive competition for us. No competition is easy to win and this one’s exactly the same.
“We’ve been successful over the years, and you can see we really take it seriously.”
