Team Review – Manchester City

Team Review – Manchester City

League Position: 1st

Ins And Outs

Ins:
Savinho from ESTAC Troyes

Outs:
Taylor Harwood-Bellis to Southampton
Sergio Gomez to Real Sociedad
Tommy Doyle to Wolverhampton Wanderers

With a long way to go in the window still, City have done good business so far. Offloaded some of their surplus players, including one of the army of full-backs Pep has wasted money on. His inability to purchase enough quality full-backs has led to him just giving up on playing with them at all! The arrival of Savinho could be a key signing, with his ability being key to Girona’s impressive season last time out. If he reaches anything like the levels he reached last season, Savinho could be a game-changer for them.

Goalkeepers:

Ederson
Stefan Ortega
Scott Carson

At one time Ederson seemed absolutely ideal for the way Guardiola likes to play, now he is no longer even the certain number 1. Partly down to his injuries and loss of form, partly down to Ortega stepping up when called upon and earning the right for more opportunities. Like Ederson, he is suspect at times, but he is extremely well suited to the way the team plays, which makes up for any deficiencies in his game to a very large extent.

Defenders:

Ruben Dias
Manuel Akanji
Nathan Ake
John Stones
Josko Gvardiol
Josh Wilson-Esbrand
Rico Lewis
Joao Cancelo
Yan Couto
Kyle Walker
Issa Kabore

Couto looks certain to leave and Cancelo is unwanted, which leaves, in essence, a block of centre-backs that can also play full-back. Absolutely ideal for Guardiola’s new system of 4 centre-backs playing as a back 2 with an inverted pair in front. It is a solution to the problem of Pep’s inability to recruit full-backs, which has become the new template for every team to play in order to get ‘control’. But it often just leaves a team open to long, raking passes to widemen operating in the spaces that a full-back would normally occupy. Playing 4 centre-backs who are comfortable operating at full-back is the best solution to the problem, but it really is just a problem of Guardiola’s own making that is now being copied by everyone else, even though they do not suffer the same issue. It gives City a nice advantage that everyone else wants to be like Pep, as he can spend more than anyone else to ensure his team does it better than the rest. His one worry must be Walker, who is showing signs that even his pace is no longer enough to make up for his inability to defend and he lacks the intelligence to figure out how to compensate for his fading legs.

Midfielders:

Rodri
Kalvin Phillips
Maximo Perrone
Matheus Nunes
Mateo Kovacic
James McAtee
Bernardo Silva
Kevin De Bruyne

By far the weakest part of the Citeh team and in desperate need of a refresh, maybe even a rebuild. Rodri is almost carrying it these days, with De Bruyne being a far cry from the player he was and Silva never quite stepping up the way he should. Silva is a fantastic player, but he needs to do more. Other than that trio, there is a bunch of players who are way off being good enough. It is little wonder Pep wants the defence and forwards to fill in the midfield places during build up play, as the midfield as a whole is simply not capable. All of that is on Guardiola, who has recruited so poorly in midfield in recent years. I am not sure anyone can truly explain the Phillips signing or why he wanted Kovacic and Nunes. City really need to be looking to recruit better options in here to allow Rodri to have an occasional break and to replace De Bruyne in the long term. The De Bruyne replacement is beginning to look urgent with injuries and loss of form badly affecting the Belgian last season.

Forwards:

Jeremy Doku
Jack Grealish
Phil Foden
Savinho
Oscar Bobb
Erling Haaland
Julian Alvarez

The arrival of Savinho has brought genuine threat to their right flank, something they lacked most of last season. The forward group looks strong, apart from the failed attempt to get Grealish to step up. He does need to be replaced before he leads more players astray and ruins their professionalism the way, at times, he has begun to affect Haaland. Grealish is such a nice lad, who always has time for fans, particularly kids, but he is also, to be frank, an idiot who has failed to grasp the opportunity in front of him because he would rather party now.

Manager: Pep Guardiola

It must be great being Pep. Even when you do have a weakness, which requires you to alter your tactics to try and get round that weak spot in your team, rather than exploit the weakness all your opponents simply copy your tactical system to leave their own defences just as exposed! Which then allows you to go out and buy players to exploit that weakness in the shape of Doku and Savinho. By the time everyone else has copied that, he will have had time to buy a whole new defence and alter the defensive set up to deal with it. It is little wonder he is moonlighting as a basketball and tennis coach as well, football has just become too easy for him!

Conclusion:

It really does not matter what weaknesses Citeh have, at least not in the Premier League, as no one will set up to exploit them, preferring instead to copy them. Even when they are stumbling badly, like they did most of last season, they still have more than enough to stroll to the title once more. Their real test these days is in European competition. Hopefully I am wrong and they will have to perform at a high level this season, but it does feel like everyone else is still playing for second place.