Manchester City’s season is starting to unravel with Sunday’s defeat to Tottenham Hotspur handing Pep Guardiola his fourth loss in 12 games.
City have been eliminated from the EFL Cup, could go eight points adrift in the Premier League title race and don’t have a better squad than last season, but Guardiola has an even more worrying problem – he still doesn’t know his best XI.
There are three months left of the season and Pep is still tinkering with his lineup. Julian Alvarez recently spoke about the squad rotation and admitted shock with how frequently Guardiola does it, so will the constant changing risk upsetting his first-team players?
Against Tottenham, Nathan Ake moved from left-back despite getting Man of the Match in that position when City beat Arsenal a week before. Kevin De Bruyne was dropped despite being chief playmaker this season (most assists, most chances created). Bernardo Silva started in midfield over Ilkay Gundogan despite failing to score a league goal since August. And Alvarez started alongside Erling Haaland despite netting just two goals in his last 12 league games.
It doesn’t seem like Guardiola has a plan for his side this season and is making decisions on the fly – letting Joao Cancelo leave mid-season was a big call. It’s certainly true he doesn’t know his best XI yet, but isn’t that very worrying in February?
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