Daniel Sturridge explains what Man City need to do in January to have a chance of winning the Premier League title after falling 11 points behind rivals Liverpool

Daniel Sturridge believes Manchester City can only win the Premier League this season if Pep Guardiola can join his squad in January.

City have been champions of England for the past four seasons, but a 2-0 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday left Guardiola’s men eleven points behind their opponents after thirteen rounds this season.

The result was no surprise as it was City’s sixth defeat in seven games in all competitions.

City had started the Premier League season with four straight wins before being held to a 2–2 draw by Arsenal in September.

Ballon d’Or winner Rodri suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury during that tie and is expected to remain sidelined until almost the end of the season.

Rodri was initially replaced by Mateo Kovacic, but since then he has also been on the injured list.

Man City manager Pep Guardiola now has six defeats to his name in his last seven games

Daniel Sturridge believes City cannot win the league without signing a new midfielder

Sturridge is therefore convinced that City must buy a new defensive midfielder if they are to have any chance of challenging Liverpool for the title.

Former City striker Sturridge – who also previously played for Liverpool – told Sky Sports after Sunday’s match at Anfield: ‘I think they need a defensive midfielder, a defensive midfielder.

“If you look at who they have now, you have that [Matheus] Nunes, you got Kovacic, you got it [Ilkay] Gundogan, the list goes on. The majority of these players are attacking or controlling players.

‘In my opinion, they certainly won’t be in the title race if they don’t sign a defensive midfielder, because you can see that in the chances. [they have been conceding] against teams that normally don’t get chances.’

Despite City being ruled out of the title race barring mid-season reinforcements, Sturridge expects them to finish in the top four.

He added: ‘I think they will play in the Champions League because I think the best players they have will perform.

‘They’re not here now. They’re not. [Erling] Haaland is not taking any chances. Players are not performing at their level.

‘But there will come a point where things will turn around and Haaland will fly in, or maybe score ten goals in a row, and then we’ll say, ‘Oh, they’re back.’

City have been missing Ballon d’Or winner Rodri (centre) since he injured his cruciate ligament in September

Liverpool were too good for City on Sunday and are now well clear of them in the table

Ex-Liverpool captain Jamie Carragher was part of the Sky Sports team on Sunday

‘So you can’t rule them out completely and say: ‘no Champions League’. I think they will get into the Champions League. But to fight for the title, I think they need a defensive midfielder.”

Former Liverpool captain Jamie Carragher agreed with Sturridge that City need a new defensive midfielder.

But Carragher suggested City are already out of the title race and they will struggle to finish above Chelsea and Arsenal, let alone leaders Liverpool.

“No matter how good a manager you are, you can’t fix that,” Carragher said. ‘I don’t think Pep can solve that in midfield [without making a least one new signing].

“This has been going on for four or five games. He has to buy players there. If he can do it in January, who knows?

‘Maybe he should wait until the end of the season to sort this out because at the moment I could see Man City losing maybe another four or five games between now and the end of the season.

“When I look at the energy that Arsenal has, the energy that the young players at Chelsea have, I think it could be difficult for City to finish top as well.”