PEP Guardiola’s international break took him to the Maldives but it’s difficult to imagine his brilliant, tortured mind affording him any respite to enjoy the sun, sea and golden sands.
Instead explanations will have been meticulously and obsessively sought to a season’s opening that very few anticipated for Manchester City; a start that has seen two defeats and numerous issues arise and all of them heightened by Liverpool’s relentless winning ways.
Starkly put, after eight games there is now a sizable gap that requires the reigning champions to be perfect for the foreseeable future and presently they are anything but. Indeed for the first time since Pep’s elaborate creation became fully operational post-Goodison in January 2017 it feels like fundamental components are going awry and weaknesses have become exposed and how the Catalan addresses all this will be fascinating to behold after his timely opportunity to press pause, reflect and reconfigure.
Wolves have just become the first team to beat Manchester City to nil at the Etihad under Pep Guardiola in the Premier League.
Wow. pic.twitter.com/pn89T4q8pG
— Footy Accumulators (@FootyAccums) October 6, 2019
Most pertinently it will be fascinating to see the team selection this weekend as City take on a Crystal Palace side that has recent form for causing them all manner of problems even with the Blues at their very best. Will Phil Foden be given his first league start of the campaign in place of an out-of-sorts David Silva? Let’s hope so because a midfield consisting of a double pivot of Rodri and Gundogan with Silva given license to be Silva has directly contributed to both of City’s losses as much as Nicolas Otamendi’s idiotic shenanigans.
With the silky Spaniard struggling it is a trio that offers little going forward other than predictable short passes in front of the opposition while the combination’s main purpose of offering greater protection to a rejigged defence simply hasn’t materialised. Unleashing a hungry, energetic Foden among the front three, breaking the lines and breaking too the uncharacteristic orthodoxy that City have succumbed to of late will offer a far greater impetus, especially true when allied to De Bruyne’s return, bossing proceedings from a deeper role.
It is a pairing that Roy Hodgson will hate to see on the team sheet and surely that says much while behind them there is only one man suitable for the onerous task of shielding their many forays. Should John Stones be declared fit as hoped then Fernandinho must be reinstalled as the team’s fulcrum and saying this is no reflection on his recent stint as a reimagined centre-back and certainly no judgement on Rodri’s input since signing which has been increasingly impressive.
There is however no getting around the fact that City’s depleted back-line has become a big concern in Laporte’s absence just as there is no getting around the Brazilian either and his ferocious work-rate and expert nullification of danger – last season he finished with a formidable 80.5% tackle success rate – reduces City’s frailties at the back at a stroke. Or a ‘tactical foul’ if you listen to Talksport.
Not that City’s travails lie entirely at one end. Up front they have too often been guilty of profligacy looking almost complacent at times as yet another chance is spurned. They know the next one is just around the corner that’s why, only that one too is invariably scuffed or put wide and when the header following soon after is nodded harmlessly into the keeper’s arms it’s then that the opposition score and panic ensues.
Manchester City have two players in the top five for passing accuracy in the #UCL this season:
2⃣ | Rodri | 196/215 | 91%
5⃣ | Ilkay Gundogan | 194/222 | 87%#ManCity pic.twitter.com/PBbN6orB9b— Man City | Superbia (@SuperbiaProeIia) October 9, 2019
The stats may strongly suggest there is no problem in this regard with Sergio Aguero leading the goal-scoring chart and City having scored seven more than Jurgen Klopp’s men. Yet all the same Blues know that for the abundance of chances that are routinely created more due care and clinical attention will further ease defensive shortcomings.
Beyond the personnel perhaps the biggest factor it is hoped visited Guardiola during his dark nights of the soul is a psychological switching of priorities. Prior to the season we were repeatedly told that the Champions League was the club’s main consideration this time out and already this ethos has proven extremely costly with the resting of De Bruyne at Norwich. That ends now.
Because at the risk of sounding presumptuous and arrogant a weak Group C will take care of itself and the same goes for an EFL commitment at the end of this month. Instead, all that matters are the three league games (against Palace, Villa and Southampton) leading up to the pivotal and decisive trip to Anfield on November 10th with no less than the maximum of nine points acceptable to keep any hopes of a third consecutive title alive. So please Pep, play your absolute strongest sides in each. Treat it as a mini-league. Treat it as everything with mid-week fare merely a distraction.
And should those three fixtures be successfully navigated (with Liverpool heading to Old Trafford and hosting Spurs in the meantime) that brings us to the fifth and final facet of the grand plan to put City firmly back into title contention: win at Liverpool; by any means necessary and for the first time in 16 years. To do so a hefty and sustained dose of good fortune will be needed at the back. Faultless and highly energetic displays evoking Fernandinho and Bernardo Silva last season will be required in midfield. Clinical prolificacy will be key up top.
I never said the plan was fool-proof, did I?
