1 day ago
5
Manchester City look well short of their best, but they also look well short of a full squad for Pep Guardiola
Three games into the season and lots of familiar problems have cropped up for Manchester City.
There has been lots of talk of a fresh start, and another £175m spent in the summer transfer window, but two defeats in their opening three games have left Blues feeling gloomy about the hopes of a transformation at the Etihad.
Pep Guardiola has put some of the issues down to teething issues with incorporating new players into his style of play, as well as pointing out that this has still really been their pre-season given they only played one friendly after the Club World Cup. Guardiola has also been at pains to highlight plenty of things from his team that he has seen so far and liked.
Nevertheless, a tame 2-0 defeat at home to Spurs was followed up by a deflating 2-1 reverse at Brighton. Individual mistakes, getting overrun in possession and being played through in the middle have all featured in the last few weeks to leave question marks over how successfully City have fixed the issues that plagued them last year.
One thing that definitely isn't helping is the state of the squad. It is boring to blame injuries for last season's decline but it was the biggest factor, with four centre-backs all getting injured on the same night to trigger a shortage of bodies and competition for places that lasted for months.
It hasn't really been mentioned amid the transfer window shenanigans but City have once again been handicapped at the beginning of their campaign. Six players sat out their opening game at Wolves, Phil Foden has been in and out of the team and Rayan Cherki is now out for two months.
Even in play against Brighton, City's decline in the final 30 minutes looked directly linked first to Rodri running out of legs on his first full Premier League game since May 2024, and Abdukodir Khusanov being forced off with a knock with five minutes to go. If Ruben Dias and Rico Lewis looked like they weren't quick enough for the pace of the game at the end, it is hardly surprising given they were unexpectedly thrown into it.
That isn't to tell a tale of hard luck because City could have taken decisions to avoid some of the problems. There should also hopefully be no issue with Savinho now the transfer window is over and the goalkeeping situation can calm down with Ederson gone.
But unless City get a grip of their injuries, they will continue to be well below their best. If the Blues are to put their problems behind them and start being consistent, their best chance of doing that is getting nearly all of their players available again.
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