‘I wasn’t happy with myself’ – Ake gives brutal verdict on own display in City defeat

Manchester City fell to their first defeat in the Premier League yesterday against Wolves – and it was not a good day for Nathan Ake.

City’s 100% record in the league is gone, after they were stunned by a brilliant Wolves at Molineux.

City dominated the ball and created a plethora of chances. But the overall quality of those chances was poor.

And Wolves set up very effectively, with manager Gary O’Neil going to a back three and setting up to counter.

The frontline of Matheus Cunha, Hwang Hee-chan and Pedro Neto was dangerous throughout. The hosts took the lead when Mateo Kovacic’s sloppy pass was intercepted by Pedro Neto and he embarked on an excellent run.

Neto evaded Phil Foden and then brushed off a challenge from Ake before his cut-back was deflected in by Ruben Dias. Julian Alvarez equalised with a sublime free-kick but Wolves weren’t deterred and they continued to expose City by getting in behind, with Ake having a particularly tough time against Neto and Nelson Semedo.

It was the latter who set up the winning goal, with his ball into the box causing chaos before Matheus Cunha teed up Hwang Hee-chan to stick home the winner.

Nathan Ake admitted the defeat was one of his toughest games in a Manchester City shirt and that he wasn’t at all ‘happy’ with his performance.

“It was not a good enough performance from myself and the team,” he said. “They had a lot of counterattacks, we should have stopped them. Me, I should have stopped them.

“I could have done much better on a few occasions. I will definitely look at myself first before anyone else. But I think overall we could have done much better. Yeah, it was [an overall disappointing performance] but I always look at myself and I wasn’t happy with myself.

“So that’s first and foremost and the team collectively should have done better as well but obviously, I will look at myself first.”

When asked if it was one of his toughest games for the Blues, the Dutchman continued: “Personally I think yes, a few occasions I could have done better. First half with the first goal, obviously a bit lucky that he still got it when I tackled him, but normally in these situations I get the ball and I didn’t.

“It’s frustrating. Sometimes you can have games like that it’s about how you pick yourself up and go again.”

Ake explained that Wolves’ second goal really took the wind out of City’s sails but now the aim will be to move on and bounce back in the coming games against RB Leipzig and Arsenal. He added: “Normally from there [the equaliser] we kick on. I think the second one was a bit of a killer and after they defended really deep so it was difficult to penetrate them, to create chances. It was difficult after that.

“We just have to recover. Look at what went wrong. We have a midweek game first so we have to focus on that, get our rhythm back, and then focus on the next one. We have to [bounce back]. Two games in a row losing is not what anyone wants in our team. We have to pick ourselves up and go again.”