CARL JOHAN CALLEMAN » exited after yielding four goals on 19 chances.

Former Manchester United star Roy Keane called them dips. They come up regularly in his new book about teams who struggled with form. We were having a dip, new players had come in... Even someone as demanding as Keane accepted dips come to all champions but he outlines how quickly teams respond from them can be the difference when it comes to becoming champions. We are now through 10 weeks of the season and heading into Sundays Manchester derby (live on TSN at 8am et/5am pt), one side of Manchester are in a dip. Not United. No, they are in a full-on rebuild. They are not good enough to call this a dip. City, the current Premier League champions, are good enough yet here they are, once again after winning a title, falling into another dip too quickly. This was not supposed to happen to this team. Manchester City were supposed to be a genuine superpower by now. Six years on from winning the football financial lottery, they remain a million miles away from Europes elite clubs, stuck in an identity crisis of exactly what they need to become on the field. Make no mistake, the brand, their academy and their executive board have improved immensely since 2008 and domestic success would suggest the playing team have done the same. Two Premier League titles, an FA Cup and a League Cup is an impressive return over that time for a club that was stuck in the doldrums for far too long in English football, yet this is not a time for this club to stand and admire their recent history. With the amount of money they have spent, this is a time that City should be kicking on and becoming better. A champion is often seen as a harder opponent to defeat once they have learned how to win but Manchester City are on the verge of gaining a reputation of complacent champions. Their latest setback came in a 2-0 loss at home to Newcastle in the Capital One Cup in midweek, a competition they won last year. On the surface, some may not feel the need to read too much into a defeat in a tournament that is losing its credibility every year. However, unlike their opponents, City played a strong side to attempt to get back to winning ways. And they still lost. It has been that kind of season so far for Manuel Pellegrinis men. Poor performances in the Champions League against Roma and CSKA Moscow mean they are looking at the bleak prospect of being thrown into the Europa League come the New Year if they cant find a way past the Italians and into second. In the Premier League, they have already lost at home to Stoke and away at West Ham and have seen leads against Arsenal and Hull evaporate. The manner in which they dominated games with tempo and arrogance last season has disappeared. There is no collective swagger, their combinations have no chemistry and they are scoring goals and earning points by relying on individual moments of brilliance. Even Pellegrini, a gentleman who conducts his media appearances with class, could no longer hide his concerns heading into Sundays match with Manchester United. My feeling is that we are not playing well, he admitted. We are in a difficult moment with a lack of trust. Of course, we must be worried - but we must find a solution and we must address it. We will see with the players which is the way to try and recover that confidence because its not normal to see this team playing the way we are now. Not normal. You can say that again. This is not a team built for dips. One day, yes, but not now. Great teams are defined by eras and eventually they all come and go in sports, and even the best are forced to re-think and come back to the top in different ways by re-building. This was how Jose Mourinho found Chelsea when he arrived at the start of last season. Flush with money, like Manchester City, they had made a commitment to young players by bringing over the likes of Eden Hazard and Oscar, future world class stars of the game, but ones whose inconsistencies would mean the team would need time to grow. When they progressed, only then did they add the necessary quality around them. City did the opposite. Before last seasons title-winning campaign, they spent 100 million pounds on five players in their prime, who could make a difference immediately. Martin Demichelis, Jesus Navas, Alvaro Negredo and Fernandinho all played crucial parts in their Premier League success. Only Stevan Jovetic struggled, mainly through injuries. This offseason, City continued that trend, bringing in players to make an immediate impact in Fernando, Frank Lampard, Bacary Sagna and Eliaquim Mangala, the most expensive defender in British football history. No team expects to spend 32 million pounds on a project and, although the former Porto man has so far been a liability, make no mistake he does not represent a different philosophy in how City are re-building their team. He is not their Kurt Zouma. And this is why City are between a rock and a hard place in building a team, stuck in an identity crisis, of what they want to become. This is a club whove only been good for the football equivalent of five minutes and, rightfully so, want more of it immediately, so when success doesnt follow, it is right to wonder what this team could look like in a couple of years. Financial Fair Play has stopped them spending tons of money on immediate stars and future stars so they have done all of their shopping in one area. Yet, when you look at their players, with the exception of the more games being played by a healthy Sergio Aguero, there are too few examples of growth. This is a team full of international stars; winners who know what it took to get to the top but now, far too many of them are having a dip in form. Make no mistake, the red half of Manchester have much more work to do to get back to the peak domestically yet, as the two teams get set to meet at the Etihad, the pressure all falls on Pellegrinis players. This Premier League race is a two-horse race but in its third month, one of those horses is still in the barn. Six points back from a formidable Chelsea side after nine games is alarming and these champions need to learn quickly about how to perform when they are not at their best so they can go on to be considered a truly great team. Keane, who won seven leagues titles, including back-to-back championships twice, gives them the perfect lesson in his book The Second Half: When I became a player, I learnt, quickly, that winning League titles is not easy. We had to fight for our success. But we were hungry. I dont think we were ever blasé about previous successes. I never thought we could live off the past and switch off for a year or two. The top sports people arent content with a single victory or triumph. I was surrounded by players who were like that. Dont relax just because you have won a few now. You win something and you say its gone. Citys performance against Keanes former team on Sunday will show us just how much they are living in the past or the present. Cheap MLB Jerseys Nike 2020 . INJURIES - Reds RF Jay Bruce is facing knee surgery for a torn meniscus and it could cost him a month of playing time. Chris Heisey, who has shown some pop (43 home runs, . MLB Jerseys Outlet . "Rob brings a wealth of coaching experience, having worked both in Canada and overseas in player development," Canada Soccer technical director Tony Fonseca said in a release. https://www.mlbjerseyschina.us/ . Levante, which had lost five straight including a Copa del Rey game last weekend, fell behind at its Ciutat de Valencia stadium when Ionut Sapanura opened the scoring for Elche in the 26th minute. Clearance MLB Jerseys . "Weve given ourselves now a tougher task," said Carlyle after the Friday practice, the Toronto head coach notably chipper and upbeat throughout. "But the bottom line is we just have to win our share of games [and] not worry about what anybody else is doing. Cheap MLB Jerseys Authentic . Canada will host Japan in a World Group first-round match in 2015. It will be a rematch of their first-round clash last year when Japan defeated Canada 4-1 to reach the World Group quarter-finals for the first time in its history.Another night and another elimination game for the Canadiens. Montreal looks to stay alive once more and force a seventh game back at the Bell Centre on Saturday when they take on the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final tonight. You can listen to the game live on TSN Radio 690 and TSN.ca/Montreal at 8pm et/5pm pt. Also, TSN.ca features live streaming of the Bell Centre viewing party in Montreal and the post-game news conferences with head coaches Michel Therrien and Alain Vigneault. Down 3-1 in their series on Tuesday, Rene Bourque notched his first career postseason hat trick as the Habs pulled out an entertaining 7-4 win in Game 5. "It was a happy moment, especially when this team was facing elimination," Bourque said. "Everyone was ready for this game in a tense situation. After they tied it, we had to settle down. We had to make it work again to bounce back. Weve been here before; we have to relax and get back to the basics instead of running around." Bourque wasnt the only prominent Canadien on the scoreboard, as Max Pacioretty and Alex Galchenyuk added a goal and assist each for the Canadiens with additional tallies from Tomas Plekanec and David Desharnais. Andrei Markov added three helpers, Lars Eller and Dale Weise assisted on a pair of scoress apiece, while Dustin Tokarski stopped 23 shots in the victory.dddddddddddd. Cam Talbot surrendered two goals on eight shots in relief of Henrik Lundqvist, who exited after yielding four goals on 19 chances. Derek Stepan returned from a broken jaw to net a pair of goals for the Rangers, who battled back from a 4-1 deficit but get another chance to close out the series on home ice in Game 6 on Thursday. The Rangers will be without the services of John Moore for the rest of the series, after the defenceman received a two-game suspension for a high hit on Montreals Dale Weise late in the third period. Former Canadiens Raphael Diaz, who hasnt played yet in this series, could draw in for Moore. Weise will not play tonight, while defenceman Alexei Emelin will be a game-time decision. Emelin missed Game 5 and was replaced in the lineup by Nathan Beaulieu. Brandon Prust, who got his own two-game ban for a similar hit to Stepan in Game 3, returns to the lineup. With 10 postseason wins, the 2013-14 Canadiens have gone further than any Montreal team in the playoffs since their Stanley Cup winning run in 1993. The Rangers, playing in their third conference final in 20 years, are looking to return to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since Mark Messiers team won a championship in 1994. ' ' '