Pep Guardiola and Manchester City’s season has taken a not altogether entirely unexpected terrible turn for the worst. The Groundhog Day manner of a humiliating defeat at Everton has generated great anger across Planet Blue with absolute justification.
Eight full days have elapsed since City basked in the afterglow of a terrific FA Cup performance against an albeit obliging West Ham.
Many of us were heartened by the solidity City showed, particularly in defence. However, doubts amongst the faithful remained based upon what we have seen so far in a difficult and tremendously disappointing Premier League campaign that the type of footballing suicide The Blues committed at Leicester was only one direct, decisive attack at our goal away and then for a game
to rapidly unravel once more.
And so it came to pass. Shorn of the fleeting but proven shot stopping presence and communication of Willy Caballero, City’s defence were back to their nervous, anxious and insufferable ‘best.’ Willy is not the greatest keeper in the world but you know he’s there behind you. whatever his limitations. Guardiola’s stubborn persistence in deploying the confidence shot, unprotected, uncommunicative and overrun Claudio Bravo is now a clear and present ongoing disaster. It is not the Chilean legend’s fault that he has been propelled into a situation whereby it has been proven across 32 competitive fixtures that ALL the defenders in front of him are hopelessly unable to play in the system their manager wants. Unless City’s attacking midfielders and forwards fail to hit the back of the net or defend from the front, the side will ride their luck. Today, Bravo was utterly humiliated by two teenagers. Worse still, all of Everton’s shots on goal went in.
Thus far, once the shock and awe of Pep’s arrival in England was overcome by our opponents, only 9 wins from our last 21 fixtures tells its own story. City’s abject failure to turn yet more ludicrous possession and passing statistics into goals today was the clearest example yet of a now urgent need for Pep to change the record.
Furthermore, approach a game like City did at Everton with the type of tinkering that saw one of the Premier League’s greatest strikers reduced to apparent disinterest having swapped roles with one of our wingers and there will never, ever be the consistency instilled that is required to win the English top flight title the way we did in 2012 and 2014. Last season I bemoaned in these cyber pages how the tools are there at City to progress, but I am not so sure now. Today confirmed for me that this City side is not the sum of its parts.
It is tempting when the stakes are so high at the top as they are in 2017 to hark back to how previous City managers addressed their squad’s capabilities. Nobody can deny that our most successful sides were all built around a solid, settled spine built upon the type of defence that can combat the likes of the combative Romelu Lukaku who trampled all over City’s beleaguered backline today. Guardiola’s side patently do not have that backbone and his tactics have been likened to the we’ll score more than you years of Kevin Keegan’s reign. I think that is unfair as even Mad Kev deployed the type of big, no nonsense imposing keepers and centre halves that grounds like Goodison Park call for in the deep midwinter. The enormity of the defeat can be further underlined by the fact that no other side in the Sheikh Mansour era has shipped 4 goals without reply in the league..
To sum up a brutal, brutal day at the office whereby some pundits are now mischieviously referring to Jurgen Klopp as City’s one that got away, what concerned me most about us on Merseyside was the lack of passion and bite that the players showed alongside what now appears to be growing discomfort with what is being asked of them from front to back.
It was never in the script nor expected to see a Guardiola side so short of intensity, especially with the mid season benefit of no European football, but that is where we are at. In one passage of play City indulged in 17 passes inside the Toffees penalty area with no end product. Pep’s stubborn refusal to go direct and long when the situation demands it as his arch enemy Jose Mourinho did yet again against Liverpool today will be our undoing unless there is a radical change of plan. Don’t hold your breath. I don’t think Pep is for turning.
Today’s hammering has been coming for a side who 6 weeks ago were 10 points ahead of The Stretfords who are now only 2 in behind and have momentum.
Right now it would be a brave punter indeed who would wager that The Blues will seal the top four finish that our league aspirations have now been reduced to.
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