Troubling Times for Manchester City?

Karan Ahgun

— 4 min read
Troubling Times for Manchester City?

After losing 3 consecutive games for the only the second time in Pep's reign, Manchester City look to be feeling the effects of missing Rodri this season. Defensive weaknesses are being exposed and Erling Haaland has stopped his scoring form. Is this run of poor form solely down to missing the Ballon d'Or winner or are there more reasons?

Rodri is probably the most important player to any team in world football, so it is understandable that Manchester City would be missing him massively, despite the amount of quality they possess in their squad. Mateo Kovacic has been tasked with filling the void in the Spaniards absence but despite being an excellent ball-carrier and press-resistant midfielder, he just doesn't have the qualities of Rodri in screening the defensive lines and connecting the midfield to the attack. Rodri's importance to both Manchester City and Spain was further highlighted by him winning this year's Ballon d'Or last week. The midfielder's defensive qualities are mostly missed in City's recent performances. It has been relatively easy for opposition attackers to cut through City's midfield in recent games, with Bournemouth and Sporting CP being the latest teams to capitalise on these defensive frailties using really direct attacks which the defensive line have been unable to cope with.

Another contributing factor to this poor run of form has been the injuries which Manchester City have picked up in recent weeks, especially from a defensive standpoint. Ruben Dias and John Stones are the main absentees in central defence and Manuel Akanji has been playing through injury in the past couple of games. Without Dias and Stones, City's defensive stability has been weakened meaning that the defence has been more regularly tested in this period of poor form. In the past 3 games alone, City have conceded 8 goals and on the eye test alone, it is clear to see how easily opposition attacks can cut through the team. Sporting's second goal on Tuesday night highlighted this, with the Portuguese team slicing through City 20 seconds after the second half began. Whilst many won't have much sympathy for City's injuries, it is clear that it has massively affected their performance as they have lost a steady foundation from which they have always built on.

City's attack has been floundering in this patch of poor form too. Erling Haaland hasn't been scoring as regularly as he was at the start of the season and the wingers in Doku and Savinho don't carry much of a box threat. With the absence of Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden not being up to speed, the attack does lack the cutting edge we so often see from Pep's team and is a reason why the service to Haaland has been so limited in recent games. But when Haaland has got the chance to score, he has fluffed his lines on multiple occasions, including rattling the crossbar with a penalty against Sporting when a goal could have turned the tide in the game. Additionally, if City were to lose Haaland to an injury, it would be a struggle to see where they get goals from because of the lack of threat from their wingers and the lack of a cover striker in the squad. One glimmer of hope for City is that De Bruyne is back fit again and can provide so much needed quality service for Haaland starting this Saturday against Brighton.

City have a tricky trip to Brighton on Saturday night and will be hoping that they can fix their defensive frailties quickly. Players like Danny Welbeck and Kaoru Mitoma will be looking to exploit these weaknesses as Bournemouth and Sporting did in the past week. On the other side, we should not be surprised if Pep Guardiola finds a magical tweak to fix all of his team's problems as he has done so on many occasions!

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