RevSportz Comment
This is usually the time of year when Manchester City, under Pep Guardiola’s coaching, make their move. If they haven’t already started the season like a high-speed locomotive, it’s during the crowded fixture list in December-January that City stretch their legs and put distance between themselves and the chasing pack.
This year, it couldn’t be more different. Heading into Christmas, City sit in seventh place in the table, 12 points behind Liverpool having played a game more. No one is even mentioning the title any more. With six defeats and a draw in their last eight league matches, City sit rock-bottom of the form table, behind even Southampton, who have taken five points from the last 24 available.
Nottingham Forest in fourth are only four points ahead, but the very fact that teams like Forest, Bournemouth (fifth) and Aston Villa (sixth) are ahead of them is a grim reminder of how far City have fallen. Villa’s 2-1 victory over City last weekend was thoroughly merited, with only Phil Foden’s late, late goal giving the illusion of a close game.
“We won a lot, it was exceptional, and now we are living the parallel,” said a subdued Guardiola afterwards. “We didn’t expect [it]. I didn’t personally and I don’t know what will be the outcome after that, so life gives you that. We have to deal with it.”
The numbers are damning. Only once, in the Covid-impacted 2019-20 season, have City lost more than six league games under Guardiola. On that occasion, they lost nine times, but still finished the season strongly enough to be second with 81 points. Their worst tally in the Guardiola years was 78 in his first season. Just to match that, they would need to win 17 of their last 21 games.
They languish in 22nd place in the revamped UEFA Champions League as well, having won only two of six matches. Lose away to equally embattled Paris Saint-Germain in January, and they may not even make the play-offs for a last-16 place.
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How has it come to this? The injury to Rodri, the Ballon d’Or winner and heartbeat of the midfield, hasn’t helped at all, but there have also been questionable transfer decisions that have come back to bite them. Julian Alvarez, thriving at Atletico Madrid after leaving last summer, was not content to be a perennial understudy to Erling Haaland. Guardiola wasn’t inclined to convince him to stay. With Haaland having misplaced his shooting boots in recent weeks, there simply isn’t another source of goals.
Even more mystifying was the decision to sell Cole Palmer to Chelsea at the start of last season. Kevin de Bruyne’s fitness has been up and down for several years now, and Palmer, who has proved himself to be a generational talent both with Chelsea and England, was the obvious successor in that creative role.
De Bruyne played just 18 league games last season, and has missed seven already this campaign. With Rodri holding fort, and Foden having a stellar season, City could tide over his absence last term. This season, with de Bruyne out and Foden looking exhausted and bereft of inspiration, the creative spark simply isn’t there.
Ilkay Gundogan, a surprise returnee from Barcelona, no longer has the legs to play in a three-man midfield, and the likes of Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish have also been way off the pace. Kyle Walker, another stalwart, has been an accident waiting to happen at right-back, while Ederson has made expensive mistakes in goal. Whatever could go wrong has for City, and it now needs to be seen if Guardiola, who extended his contract just before this horror run, has the appetite to fix it.
He turns 54 in January and has been operating at the highest level, as a coach, for nearly 17 years. One of those who greatly influenced Guardiola and the current generation of coaches, Arrigo Sacchi, was effectively done by the age of 52. A decade after scaling the heights with an all-time-great AC Milan side, Sacchi quit the Atletico Madrid job in February 1999 just eight months into a long-term contract.
“I’m exhausted, which is why I’ve taken the decision,” he said back then. “Today I’m quitting football. I haven’t anything else to say.”
He resurfaced at Parma two years later, but resigned just three games in, citing stress. He hasn’t managed since. Few would wish such a fate on Guardiola, but as the losses mount and the questions multiply, the time to find answers is running out.