Second-half goals from Dusan Vlahovic and Weston Mckennie secured the three points in Matchday Six of the League Phase for the hosts in Turin.
Erling Haaland and Ilkay Gundogan came closest for City, but both were denied expertly either side of half-time by Juventus goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio.
The defeat means Pep Guardiola‘s men now have one win in our last ten matches across all competitions and Gundogan believes the team’s performances are not far off where they would like to be, but has called for the squad to self-reflect in an attempt to turn results around.
“We know exactly what is going wrong and we know the reasons,” reflected Gundogan. “Still, in most parts of the games, we actually don’t play badly. We play good football and create chances. We just miss a score and if you give away once chance and they score, it’s not that easy to come back and to bounce back.
“I feel like to ourselves it’s so obvious what is going wrong. It’s about trying to find the switch to turn things around. Even though we do not get the results right now, I don’t feel like we’re far off it. That is my personal feeling right now.
“As long as we don’t find the click, it’s going to be tough. Every single player individually has to question themselves on how to do better, how to sacrifice more and how they can contribute to the team so we can collectively get back on our way.
“Even more, you have to do the simple things as good as possible. Quick, clean and fluent. This is how we get the confidence back. By doing the simple things, you get confidence back. It feels like in the crucial moments at the moment we’re always doing the wrong things.”
City now have eight points from six matches in the Champions League, with a crucial clash with PSG up next in the competition.
Gundogan believes that the team have to show more physicality and mental fortitude to recapture our sparkling form from recent seasons.
“It’s very disappointing actually. We had a few chances to actually score goals. But at the moment it feels like every attack we concede is so dangerous. Sometimes we’re a bit careless in duels, instead of playing simple, we over-complicate things. We miss the right timing to release the ball.
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“We’re just losing balls and it’s transitions all the time, and give them counter attacks. We have to chase every time like 50 or 60 metres back, that’s not what we’re built for.
“We’re built for possession. To keep the ball, be strong. Even if you cannot do anything the duel, just don’t lose it. At the moment it’s just not working out for us.
“Obviously, that’s a mental issue as well. You can see we are sometimes, in one action we miss the ball or lose a duel, and you see that we drop immediately.
“We lose the rhythm and they can break our rhythm with the smallest of things. They don’t have to do much. It has such a big effect on us right now.”
