Having dominated English football under Pep Guardiola, Manchester City is suddenly winless since October and all but out of the Premier League title race after a 2-0 loss to arch rival Liverpool.
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City trail the Reds by 11 points after just 13 games. So how — the loss of Ballon d’Or winner Rodri aside — did it come to this?
Here is what the UK press is saying, amid widespread shock over the club’s downfall.
Writing for The Times, Martin Samuel said that: “Shorn of their protector Rodri, Guardiola’s City have aged quicker than pears left adjacent to a bunch of bananas.”
Yet he primarily blamed the ageing of the team, singling out Kyle Walker’s loss of pace, and criticised City’s failure to retain young talent. He said the team was clearly in downturn despite the mighty Premier League achievements that Guardiola referred to with his six-finger gesture at Anfield.
“…The decline of certain individuals is obvious. As are some missteps by Guardiola himself. With age an increasing problem, the young talent that has been allowed to leave the club is regrettable. Cole Palmer is the most obvious loss, although Guardiola’s champions might argue no one was saying that the year he departed and City went on to win a fourth straight title,” Samuel wrote.
“But, actually, they were. Palmer’s form on his immediate arrival at Chelsea always suggested he could have found a place at City and just because a team win the league doesn’t mean they cannot be improved. Equally, could City have fought harder to keep 24-year-old Julián Álvarez, who, while a club-record sale, was such an important part of the success last season? Even if Atletico Madrid’s £81.8million was too good to turn down, why also allow Liam Delap to join Ipswich Town? Guardiola’s preference for a small squad is well known, but the burden heaped on Erling Haaland looks increasingly unsustainable.”
Writing for talkSPORT, Henry Winter said that City had gone from “Invincibles to Invisibles … riddled with self-doubt”. He said that a squad clear-out was needed.
“This is Guardiola’s greatest challenge: reviving City,” Winter wrote.
“Time has caught up with some like Kyle Walker, Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva. A relentless workload has temporarily drained others like Phil Foden.
“City need new blood, new energy. The winds of change may only be felt positively through an open transfer window and Guardiola’s coaching and man-management.
“Too many of his players look stuck in quick-sand and he’s struggling to pull them out.
“City weren’t beaten by moments of sublime skill. They were beaten in the application of the basics. Liverpool wanted the ball more. They wanted victory more. And that should embarrass City.
“Yes, they’re missing Rodri, their most important player, but they have so much talent, so many serial title winners, but all underperforming, barring honourable exceptions like Nathan Ake, Ruben Dias and Rico Lewis.”
Writing for the Daily Mail, Sami Mokbel said that Crystal Palace and England midfielder Adam Wharton was at the top of Man City’s shopping list for the January transfer window – but would be hard to get.
“Crystal Palace have no intention of selling Adam Wharton in January amid growing interest in the England midfielder,” Mokbel wrote.
“Manchester City are among the Premier League clubs monitoring Wharton’s situation closely ahead of the winter transfer window.
“The 20-year-old’s season has been dogged by a groin injury that eventually required surgery which won’t see him return until Palace’s clash versus Brighton on December 15 at the earliest.”
Speaking on the latest episode of his The Rest Is Football podcast, England great Gary Lineker and former Man City defender Micah Richards questioned whether all was well between Guardiola and superstar midfielder Kevin De Bruyne.
“De Bruyne came on again with not long to go when the game was pretty much done. Yeah, he nearly got a goal because of [Virgil] van Dijk’s error, but is there something going on there, do you think? Because he’s been coming on for five or 10 minutes, what, for about a month now?” Lineker said.
“You would imagine he’s getting fitter, even though I saw both of them – Pep Guardiola and De Bruyne – make interesting statements in the week, where it seems like all’s not well between those two? I don’t know. I’ve got no inside information whatsoever. The ambassador of Manchester City might, though… Micah?”
Richards laughed off the segue but said: “I think you’re right. There’s got to be some context to it… this goes back [to] before the international break. De Bruyne got some minutes, but after the international break, he didn’t start and then hasn’t started again. But he’s one who can unlock a door.
“We know with Kevin De Bruyne, you’ve got to wrap him in cotton wool … but a big game like this, I thought [Guardiola] was sort of saving him for this game. But even just the talks, [De Bruyne] potentially going to Saudi at the end of the year … it looks to me like there’s some sort of rift gong on between them.”
Writing for The Telegraph, Oliver Brown said that Guardiola cut a Jose Mourinho-like figure with his six-finger salute to Reds fans.
“Engulfed by strife, Pep Guardiola can do little but resort to the antics of a man who is his antithesis. The six-fingered salute Guardiola performed as a rebuke to Liverpool fans, denoting six titles in seven years to confound their taunts that he would be “sacked in the morning”, was taken straight from the Jose Mourinho playbook. For good measure, he did it again for the City supporters’ benefit, even as they stood reeling at the sudden fallibility of a figure whose wisdom they worship.
“There could scarcely be a more striking illustration of the turmoil in Guardiola’s mind. As another limp, gaffe-riddled performance by his team ate away at his soul, he looked as if he had no idea how to arrest the slide. And so he channelled classic Mourinho, the preening rival he used to disdain as “el puto jefe, el puto amo” (“the f—— boss, the f—— master”). True, the six fingers were held up with a smile rather than a Jose-esque snarl. But the subtext was similar: first he showed that the Kop’s chanting was ruffling his feathers, then he urged even his own disciples to remember his body of work.”
Pep taunts Reds crowd after loss | 00:19
Writing for The Guardian, Jonathan Wilson delved into what it might take for the unthinkable to happen, while alluding to the looming outcome of 115 Premier League charges regarding alleged breaches of league financial rules.
“Could Guardiola be sacked? It seems unthinkable. For most of the past 16 years he has been obviously the best coach in the world. Long before he got to City, the club was built to his vision. To break from that would be a seismic act for the club’s owners, far greater than, say, Leicester offloading Claudio Ranieri or Chelsea dismissing José Mourinho in the months after they won a title, especially as City fight the Premier League charges.
“But equally, history shows that once the magic has gone in football, it is very hard to get it back (look at Inter in 1966-67, dominant and seemingly en route to a Treble only, abruptly to lose form, winning only two of their final 11 games of the season to end up with nothing; Helenio Herrera was given another season, in which they finished fifth).
“In a month, City’s aura has vanished, but who realistically looks a better candidate than Guardiola to restore it? So long as he feels sufficiently energised, he will surely be afforded that opportunity. But what resources he has to do that will probably depend, like so much else, on the outcome of the Premier League charges against the club.”
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