'We'll definitely bounce back'
Ilkay Gundogan is "very confident" Manchester City can "bounce back" in 2025-26 after finishing this season in stronger form.Pep Guardiola's side racked up nine Premier League defeats, equalling their record for most league defeats in a season during the Spaniard's reign.But when it mattered most, City started to look stronger and finished the season in third with 21 wins from their 38 matches."It feels like the season was so long, with a lot of up and down things," said Gundogan. "Not just with the team, but everyone individually as well."Obviously everyone went through the struggles. I feel like now at the end of the season the feeling is positive in the way we've performed in the past two months since the last international break."Since we returned, we won most of the games and got a lot of points. If we were able to perform in that way throughout the whole season it would be a completely different outcome for us in the end."That's the target for next year, to learn from all the mistakes in the campaign, to take that last couple of months as the standard and expectation going into the Club World Cup and the next Premier League season."I'm very confident that if we're able to do that, we'll definitely bounce back and be in competition for the Premier League title."These are the standards that this team, this club has set over the past few years, the past decade. Unfortunately nothing less than that is enough in a very competitive Premier League."
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