Manchester City's disastrous season- What's going wrong on the blue side of Manchester?

“Nothing is eternal”. These were the words to Pep Guardiola after City’s 6-3 loss on aggregate to Real Madrid in the Champions league play-offs. It looked like we were watching an end of an era at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night as Kylian Mbappe terrorized the city defence and ripped them apart. City are no longer the team feared by everyone but what’s shocking is how quickly they declined. From fighting for a fourth consecutive league title to struggling to get fourth place in less than a year. But what exactly are the reason for City’s downfall?

Injury Problems to Key players

Ballon D’Or winner Rodri suffered an ACL injury in the game against Arsenal. Playing without him has been quite the task for Guardiola’s team. Without him the team went on a run of 1 win in 13 games starting from November to boxing day. The only other player in the squad who can carry out Rodri’s role in the squad is John Stones and he too has been plagued by injuries. Injuries problems have meant that Stones has played only 11 games in the league. These are two more games than Nathan Ake has played. Add to this illnesses and knocks to players like Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish and city have played with a depleted squad most of the time.

Ballon D'or winner Rodri is sidelined for a long time due to an ACL injury

An Aging Squad

Seven of City’s core squad are 30 or above. Pep Guardiola’s two jobs before Manchester City lasted for 3-4 years. Building a squad from scratch is not something Guardiola has done before. Questions need to be asked whether he can do it. Constantly building title winning squads is what made managers like Sir Alex Ferguson, Jock Stein and Arsene Wenger so successful in the long term. 

Kyle Walker left to join AC Milan in January

Although City have splashed 200 million on players in January and brought in some fresh faces, it needs to be seen whether the likes to Khusanov, Victor Reis and Omar Marmoush can make an impact in the Premier League. Kyle Walker left in January but only one of the many that maybe need to leave if City want to build a title winning squad again.

Overreliance on Erling Haaland

City started the season with 4 wins on the trot scoring 11 goals. But Erling Haaland alone scored 9 goals in those games. Once the goals started drying up for Haaland (for his standards), City started struggling in front of the goal. Phil Foden is the only other player with goals in double figures for City. The likes of Jeremy Doku and Savinho have limited output and Jack Grealish has often struggled to get G/A at City. The sale of Julian Alvarez left a void in the squad which was not filled until the signing of Omar Marmoush which has seen City struggle.

Has Pep Guardiola lost faith in his players?

You watch the best Pep Guardiola sides and you are always mesmerized. Not only are they excellent on the ball but they are dominant off it as well. Guardiola is the manager who added high pressing in Tiki-Taka football and took it to the next level. Seeing a Guardiola side not pressing high giving opposition time on the ball is almost alien. Either he has lost faith in himself or the players. This happens to managers when things are not going well. City players will have to show Guardiola they are still capable or it won’t end well for either side.

Is there a way back for City?

Pep Guardiola is one of the best tactical minds (if not the best) the world has ever seen. If there is one man who can change City’s fortunes around in less time it’s him. Questions are being raised and rightly so but a good transfer window along with some new ideas by Pep will see City challenging for the title once again next season.

By Parth Gokhale