Why hasn't Man City won the Premier League for a month?
Man City's streak in the English Premier League reaches four games - this is a repeat of the anti-record in the era of Pep Guardiola. After losing to the The Villans, last year's national champions fell to 4th place in the standings, although they were still leaders during the national team matches. The gap between the Gunners and the Citizens is already six points.
Is everything sad in Pep's kingdom and what happened?
A clear slump in the first part of the current campaign is a classic Pep situation. Now he is looking for that same magic formula.
Guardiola has often said that there are two main tasks for the starting part of the season: to get out of the subgroup in the Champions League and not to let go of the main competitors for the championship in the Premier League. Last season, the Spaniard cited as an example a parallel with the NBA, where the championship is divided into two halves - the regular season, where you can experiment, and the playoff stage, when everything should be fine.
This explains Man City's slippage in the first part of this season - the current one is not the first. At first, Guardiola experiments a lot: tries out performers in new roles, gives practice to his recruits. Having found the optimal interaction, he begins a series of victories - a decisive element of all the triumphs of the club from Manchester.
Currently, due to injuries to leading players, Pep simply has to experiment often. Stones' position, for example, is played by Manuel Akanji, who has never played as an auxiliary midfielder in his life. Obviously, difficulties inevitably arise in this case. Getting players used to positions that are unusual for them is the most important element of the championship. If you like to bet on the English Premier League, we recommend going to the website https://mostbet-az.club/aviator.
The crisis occurred during a period of matches with top opponents
Liverpool, Tottenham, as well as Aston Villa, with these clubs City played after the break, are higher than Brighton in the standings. The capital's Chelsea, where this series began, is in the middle of the tournament, but in terms of the quality of play, even the club is approximately on the same level as De Zerbi's guys. Manchester City began to lose points frequently, and not at random periods of the season - the losses occurred during a series of matches with top opponents.
Matches with competitors varied greatly. City's only serious setback was the last match with Birmingham's Aston Villa, where many anti-records were broken.
City are very painfully rebuilding their midfield. New players adapt with great difficulty (some of them are not able to do this)
Stones is regularly injured and De Bruyne was out of action in August. Rodri did not play in four battles in a row (disqualification).
In terms of personnel, City can replace these performers - there is Kovacic, Phillips, as well as Nunesh, who were acquired over the past year and a half. The whole difficulty is getting used to the coach's football. Phillips is not holding out and is ready to look for a new club, Nunesh and Kovacic are extremely slow to adapt after transfers in the summer off-season. Their ceiling in extreme meetings exits from the bench.
Often, the “citizens” are forced to build a middle line from those who are not midfielders. Alvarez is the nominal striker, Akanji is the centre-back and Foden is the winger. Everyone has potential, but they do not have the support of experienced players to reach a higher level. We have to develop in extremely difficult conditions.
In the most important matches against their rivals, City are caught between chaos and order
An important caveat: so far, Man City is only playing poorly in matches against the tops. Against clubs of a lower level, the Champions League holders still take points without any problems. Questions often arise in large meetings, where the main thing is to find a middle ground between defense and attack. Pep has not yet managed to do this.
Almost all games are a choice between control and chaos
The usual scenario for the “citizens” is a duel with dominance, complete control, often quite boring for the average fan.
The skills of those football players who replace the injured are pushing towards chaos. Pep has many more attacking players at his disposal: Doku, Alvarez, and Foden were in the main squad. The bias towards these players is obvious. Using their strengths can be beneficial, but reliability will suffer.
Haaland doesn't convert when needed
The problem of the Manchester club could be solved by selling Haaland. While she is suffering. According to Understat, the Norwegian was able to score 2.73 fewer goals than his xG gives.
After the loss to Aston Villa, Pep realized that he had many problems to resolve - which he admits exist. The return of injured players can help with this, and the calendar is not difficult, it's all for City. Before the end of this year, the club will compete with two newcomers to the Premier League championship: Liverpool's Everton and Crystal Palace.
Arguably the highlight of this season for City will be the return of Kevin De Bruyne. Pep has already noted that the Belgian midfielder is not regaining his condition very quickly after injuries. If a full-fledged comeback slows down, losing the title will be quite possible. Right now, City are also predicting decent prospects - and despite the disastrous series, Opta sees Pep's club as the winner (54%) for the Premier League trophy.