Friday Mar 14 2008 09:05
Michael Ball has urged Manchester City to stick to their gameplan as they bid to snap a recent poor run of results.
City have seen their European challenge falter after winning just two of their last ten Premier League games.
Sven-Goran Eriksson's side have slipped down to ninth place in the table and a UEFA Cup place now appears out of their reach.
However Ball, who is set to miss Sunday's clash with Spurs through injury, wants City to stick to the principles that served them so well during the first half of the campaign.
"I'm very surprised that we have not scored in the last couple of games and it's hard to swallow because we have been creating the chances," he told the club's official website.
"With the players that we have we should be scoring. Earlier in the season we were scoring a few and the defence was holding their own.
"Hopefully we'll get things back on track, but we need to stick to our principles.
"We know we're working in the right way, but we need to do it for the 90 minutes."
Meanwhile, Ball has hinted that fellow defenders Richard Dunne (shin) and Nedum Onuoha (hamstring) will also miss the visit of Spurs.
"Richard and myself will not be out for too long and Nedum looks like he will be back soon," he added.
"Hopefully we'll have a full-strength side again with a week or two."
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