Chelsea Star Hakim Ziyech Slated After 'Failing To Track Back' For Manchester City’s Third Goal

Chelsea star Hakim Ziyech has been slammed after he failed to track back for Manchester City's third goal.

Pep Guardiola's men secured a 3-1 victory at Stamford Bridge on Sunday as pressure continues to mount on Blues boss Frank Lampard.

Ilkay Gundogan opened the scoring in the 18th minute before Phil Foden slotted in City's second only minutes later.

Chelsea lost possession of the ball after a Ziyech free-kick and City launched a counter-attack as Raheem Sterling went on a brilliant run.

The 26-year-old England international struggled to set himself up for the perfect shot and would end up hitting the post, only for Kevin De Bruyne to fire in the rebound to put City 3-0 up before half-time.

Ziyech, who Chelsea splashed out £33.3m to sign from Ajax, was spotted failing to track back and help out his teammates.

And it has even been suggested that the former Ajax star 'pretended' to slip over so that he didn't have to run back to his own half.

Sky Sports pundit Graeme Souness tore Ziyech apart during his analysis and called out the 27-year-old winger for failing to track back and help his teammates.

The 67-year-old former Liverpool star said: "Big players don't act like this... They don't stand and watch the game like this. 'Not my problem, someone else's problem.'

"What Ziyech was guilty of for the third goal was just downright 'I'm not bothered. I'm not showing any real desire to deal with the basics, which is track back.'

"You see him play the free-kick, you see the ball come out. Now watch him, goes forward, now he pretends he's slipped up. What does that say about a player?

"I'm not saying by him sprinting back it prevents the goal, but just never, never know a goal might take a ricochet and you can be there to deal with it.

"That's happened in training, he must have done that in training. As a manager, you've got to sort it out."

When he was asked if it was the instinct of forward players, Souness responded: "In proper teams that never happens.

"Teams that win the big trophies, other players get after them... If he's allowed to get away with that, it's now January, he's been here since August."

Chelsea are currently eighth in the Premier League table and are three points off from fourth-placed Tottenham, though they have played one more match than their London rivals.

Topics: Manchester City, Football News, Hakim Ziyech, Chelsea, Football, Premier League, Blues, stamford bridge

Adnan Riaz

Adnan Riaz is a journalist for SPORTbible. He studied for a B.A. in History at the University of York and followed it up with an M.A. in Multimedia Journalism at MMU. Before he started writing about sports, he spent over four years in the gaming press. He has worked for several publications, including Hardcore Gamer, LADbible and the Manchester Evening News. Follow him on Twitter to find out what he is working on next. Got a story tip for Adnan? Email him: [email protected]

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