Manchester City defender Pablo Zabaleta admits results this week will be "crucial".
City open their Champions League campaign at Viktoria Plzen, before hosting Manchester United on Sunday.
"It's a crucial week," admitted Zabaleta. "Obviously as a team we can play better. Sometimes it takes a while under a new boss to know your job and get to know the new players coming in. But he's a manager with good experience of the Champions League and now it's a different challenge for him.
"What happened in the last two years in the Champions League has helped us to learn about it and now we will hopefully be better.
"I'm not saying it's an easy group but if you compare it to the last two years maybe this is better. We have a great chance to qualify for the knockout stage this time."
