A lot is suddenly going wrong at Manchester City - A primer
This season, unlike past ones, Manchester City are unlikely to chase down the title
We have a general rule of thumb in prognosticating the Premier League- the side sitting top in mid-December generally wins the tile unless it is Manchester City chasing them - then more often than not, City wins the title.
Because Manchester City have won four of the last five Premier League titles, three of those coming from behind in the table, a certain expectation has permeated English football, that this season the same thing was destined to happen, no matter how many points clear Arsenal are at a given moment.
This season is proving to be different, however, as the festive period where Manchester City usually ascends has proven to be the club’s undoing. Here is a quick primer on what’s going wrong and how it might be fixed.
The losses of Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus are now being felt as City lack runners without the ball that are finding pockets of space in the opposition final third. Pep Guardiola continued to persist with the selection of (or bringing him off the bench as an early sub) Sterling against the wishes of many supporters and media members for just this reason.
Erling Haaland is tailing off as defenses are limiting the channels for him to run into. This makes the lack of willing runners making diagonal runs more problematic.
Kyle Walker and João Cancelo both are failing to impact matches as regularly with overlapping runs or tucking into midfield. And both are showing limitations as man-marking fullbacks.
Rodri has very visibly not had the same impact this season as the last two, when City won the title. However, he’s still well above the level of the typical number six in the league, just not the level of the last two seasons, when I would argue he was the single most impactful player in this division. Who knows if Spain’s odd use of him as a Centreback during the FIFA World Cup disrupted him, because his positional play has not been as solid this season.
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