da 888casino： Manchester City fans were relieved after they held out for 1-1 away draw against Borussia Monchengladbach in the Champions League.
da leao： In a match where both teams went down to ten men, David Silva had to bail the Citizens out after Raffael had opened the scoring for the German side.
It was another lacklustre performance from a side that started the season on fire and it begs the question – has Pep Guardiola’s side been found out?
One problem the Spaniard seems to be having at the moment is that he can’t seem to decide on a preferred formation.
City started the season with a 4-1-4-1 formation that had both full-backs tucking in and the wingers – mainly Raheem Sterling and Nolito providing the width.
[ffc_insert title=”The most important chart this Christmas” image=”https://www.footballfancast.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/2016-11-19T165554Z_122576154_MT1ACI14676732_RTRMADP_3_SOCCER-ENGLAND-SOU-LIV.jpg?admin” link=”https://www.footballfancast.com/premier-league/being-christmas-no-1-is-more-important-than-ever-in-the-premier-league” link_text=”Christmas Number One” ]
The pundits raved over the tactic and while there were teething problems and a few near misses, City won all six of their opening games.
Then came a winless month, starting with a 3-3 draw against Celtic in Europe and a shock 2-0 loss away from Tottenham Hotspur.
Being a proactive and experimental manager, Guardiola switched to a three-man defence in the hope of overloading the midfield. The results were mixed at best as City drew three of the next four – against the likes of Everton, Southampton and Middlesbrough.
They were extremely unlucky in the Everton game (Maarten Stekelenburg put in the performance of his life to make eight saves including two penalties), but would have expected wins at home to Southampton and Middlesbrough.
Unfortunately it seemed all three had worked out how to stifle Guardiola’s plans – by sitting deep and not giving them any space around the box. It’s a tactic a number of sides are likely to employ – one would imagine Burnley will do it at Turf Moor tomorrow – and if Guardiola can’t work out how to beat it, City will drop more points.
It is worth noting that while the results haven’t been amazing over the last couple of months, City are still playing well. According to Squawka, they rank top for possession (59%) and are second to Liverpool for completed passes. On top of that, the loss to Spurs is the only game they were outplayed in having dominated other opposition.
Part of the problem also seems to have come from a lack of cutting edge. Sergio Aguero, who started the season off on fire with 11 goals in six games has slowed down a lot recently, managing only three in his last eleven in all competitions. The Argentine hasn’t looked at his best lately and was particularly poor in front of goal against Crystal Palace: he’s possibly a bit tired.
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Manchester City are by no means a one-man team (if anything, Kevin De Bruyne has been their best player this season) but there is no doubt they look a better side with Aguero fit and firing.
Finally it seems Guardiola has no way to solve his defensive woes. City have keep just two clean sheets this season – hardly enough to build a title challenge on.
Many hoped that the return of Vincent Kompany would tighten up the defence but the Belgian has been ruled out for at least a few weeks after coming off after 37 minutes against Palace last weekend.
£47m signing John Stones has had a particularly error-prone start to his City career and was out-muscled by Monchengladbach’s Lars Stindl for the German side’s opener in midweek, while other centre backs Nicolas Otamendi and Aleksandar Kolarov haven’t looked particularly assured either.
City’s leaky backline may be what inspired Guardiola to trial a three-man backline, but at the moment whatever formation the Spaniard plays it seems like the opposition can count on grabbing a goal from a defensive mishap.
Until Guardiola picks a preferred formation, sorts his defence out, and gets Aguero firing he won’t be able to rest easy. If things carry on as they are, the relief City fans felt on Wednesday night will turn to frustration later in the season.
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