Manchester City have won just once in their last 10 matches. From the outside it seems surprising that such a run has gone on so long, that their brilliant players and manager have not found a solution and things quickly returned to normal.
But the reality is that this could carry on for a while yet, an especially big concern for the club ahead of Sunday’s Manchester derby.
City are stuck in a vicious cycle where many of their most solid, stable players are injured and their remaining fit players are fatigued. It means that a team already lacking physicality and mobility in midfield due to Rodri’s season-long absence can be picked off on the break.
Ilkay Gundogan spelled out exactly what the issues are following the 2-0 defeat against Juventus, one which leaves City 22nd in the new Champions League format, needing at least a victory from their final two matches to secure just play-off spot.
“At the moment it just feels like that every attack we concede is just so dangerous,” Gundogan told TNT Sports. “And I have the feeling sometimes we are a bit careless in the duels. Instead of playing simple we overcomplicate things and we miss the right timing to pass the ball, to release the ball and we just lose balls and they score on the transition every time. We give them counter-attacks and we have to chase back 50, 60 metres.
“That’s not what we’re built for, we are built for possession and to keep the ball, be strong, and even if you cannot do anything in the duel just don’t lose it. At the moment it’s just not working out for us.”
He was asked about a lack of confidence in the team. “It’s a big part of it and obviously that’s a mental issue as well. One action, we will miss the ball or lose a duel and you see that we drop immediately, that we lose the rhythm and they are able to break our rhythm with the smallest of things. They don’t even need to do much and it just has such a big effect on us right now.”
City were already looking weak on counter-attacks in the immediate aftermath of Rodri’s injury, but were at least able to fight their way to victories against Fulham and Wolves earlier in the season. That might be their level if they had more of their key men available — not at their very best, but certainly not weak enough to have only won once in 10 matches.
Those around Guardiola hoped that things would improve after the November international break because John Stones, Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji, Ruben Dias, Jeremy Doku and Kevin De Bruyne were ready to return from injury.
Josko Gvardiol is one of Manchester City’s few fit defenders (Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)
But their attempts to get back to something even remotely near their best have been hamstrung yet again. Stones went off in the first match back and even City’s victory over Nottingham Forest last week was immediately undermined by Akanji and Ake getting injured again, the impact of which has been seen in the two matches since.
They did not know that Mateo Kovacic would be injured with Croatia, either, or that Phil Foden would get bronchitis. It is one thing after another.
Foden has been unable to recapture last season’s sparkling form at a time when De Bruyne missed around 10 weeks, robbing the team of creativity.
There are some issues not necessarily related to fitness, too: City’s wingers are not providing a goal threat. Erling Haaland has looked jaded. When you cannot keep the ball out of the net you better put it in at the other end, and they have often struggled to do that.
These are not new problems but there is no sign of the biggest causes getting better. Guardiola pointed that out following the 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace on Saturday.
“The solution is ‘give me my players back’ and we will do it, but it is not possible right now and I don’t think it is going to happen for a long time,” he said, and went on to explain exactly why.
Pep Guardiola is desperate to get players fit again (Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)
“We recovered our four central defenders last week but they went from the massage table to the pitch, and after the pitch they went to the massage table again. Normally after the massage you need tempo, training, but in the circumstances we could not do it.
“They come from many years of arriving in the last stages of all competitions and in the end there arrives a moment where the body cannot sustain it. When we arrived in the last stages of the treble season or domestic quadruple it was because everybody is there or everybody is involved, but today in those positions, except McAtee, Grealish, Jeremy, the other ones are from the academy and it’s going to be the same for the next three weeks, one month.”
Guardiola, for years misunderstood due to his constant rotating of his players, has had to start Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan in the six matches since the international break. De Bruyne, only just back from that injury, has played the last three matches, while Dias, also back from injury, has started the last four. This is not how Guardiola likes to manage his team and the fear is that those players start to drop, too, but there are not many options in reserve.
Foden and Kovacic were on the bench in Turin but did not come on, meaning they may have to come straight from the massage table against Manchester United on Sunday. They would add freshness and some spark but would not really solve problems on the counter-attack, especially with Rico Lewis’ suspension meaning that Guardiola’s fit defenders — if Akanji is not available — are Dias, Josko Gvardiol, Kyle Walker (who has been struggling badly for weeks) and youngster Jamai Simpson-Pusey.
Manchester United are hardly setting the world alight either at the moment but from City’s point of view their problems have been obvious for a while and their attempts to put them right are severely hampered by a fitness situation that is not getting better — which is why the victory over Forest could never be a catalyst for a revival.
It is certainly unusual to see City this vulnerable, and it will surely not last until the end of the season, but listening to Guardiola and Gundogan, it is hard to see how things get consistently better just yet.
(Top photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images)
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