Monday 21 January 2019 12:40, UK
Gary Neville says Manchester City cannot afford a repeat of their "complacent" 25 minutes during their win at Huddersfield.
City were far from their fluid best on Sunday but still did enough to win 3-0 at the John Smith's Stadium, and reduce the gap on Premier League leaders Liverpool back to four points.
But after full-time on the Gary Neville Podcast, Neville said Pep Guardiola's side could come unstuck if they "drifted" again later in the season.
He said: "I got angry with them in the first half - they were drifting and showing that little bit of complacency.
"If you were a City fan at home, you might sit there thinking 'Did you never have 25-minute spells like that?' but when you think of the intensity they got to all of last season... We were here last season and saw the celebrations at the end of that game. But today it felt like they were going through the motions in the first half a bit.
"They've got a big four months in front of them. They're going for the Champions League, they've got the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup and they're going for back-to-back titles and when you're going for that, you've got to have that intensity all the time.
"It wasn't really me thinking about today's game, but if they introduce 25-30 minute periods like that in certain games in the rest of the season, they'll have problems."
With City still hot on the heels of Liverpool, and having beaten them at the Etihad Stadium on January 3, Neville said the priority for Guardiola will be to draw on the experience of his players and keep the pressure on the league leaders as much as possible while the season draws towards its climax.
He said: "The emotion surrounding a Liverpool title run-in, like we saw a few years ago, is going to come again. It's a huge club, having not won it for well over 25 years and the fact it means so much, Jurgen Klopp brings that sort of passion too... that moment is coming to come where it gets really ramped up.
"I interviewed Klopp a few weeks ago and he plays it down, but he's been here before with Dortmund. A lot of the players haven't, a lot haven't been through a title run-in with Liverpool.
"City will want to play on their experience and composure and it does count, but you've got to be in there, neck and neck, and City will want to make sure going into April and May, the last six or seven games, Liverpool are under the maximum pressure, which means level or just in front.
"Then Liverpool will have a lot of questions to answer."
