Former Manchester City manager Peter Reid has said that the players appear to have lost their desire under Manuel Pellegrini.
The current City boss is under pressure after his side's Premier League title defence has faltered in recent weeks, with Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Burnley leaving them six points behind leaders Chelsea.
"There's no desire when they lose the ball to get it back, to zip it around the park," Reid told talkSPORT. "We can all have off days in any walk of life, but that desire, fighting for the shirt, not wanting to get beat, I'm looking at City and I don't see that.
"The players have got a big responsibility to show what they can do. At this moment in time, it doesn't look as if they are doing that. They are real top, top players and they are not doing the business at the moment.
"To be fair to Pellegrini he did recently leave [Vincent] Kompany out and last year he left out the England goalkeeper [Joe Hart], so he has made hard decisions. But for, some reason, it looks as though they are not playing with that desire. And how you get it back, I don't know."
City face Barcelona in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Steven Toplis
