On Sunday afternoon, against Everton, Manchester City had just over 70 per cent possession, seven more shots than the opposition; 864 touches compared to 457; 674 passes as opposed to 274 and yet Pep Guardiola suffered his worst ever league defeat as a manager, losing 4-0.
These stats are the product of Guardiola’s favoured tippy tappy style of playing the game. He is a manager obsessed with keeping possession of the ball and building slowly from the back, which is all very well and good but if there is no goal at the end of it, it is a futile and extremely frustrating exercise.
Everton, who played brilliant counter-attacking football, only had four shots on target and they scored from each one of them.
Every time Pep’s way of playing football goes wrong, as it did at Goodison Park in shambolic fashion, it increases the intensity of the spotlight glaring down on a man who probably for the first time in his managerial career had to listen to chants of ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’ from Everton fans.
That clearly is not going to happen although I wonder whether Guardiola might now be having second thoughts about taking the City job and the unique challenges of the Premier League which is turning out to be a bit more problematic than he is used to or imagined. City started the game brightly enough and could have taken the lead but they rely too much on Sergio Aguero and he looked a yard off the pace.
Raheem Sterling was lively but never really threatened the goal, Kevin De Bruyne went missing and Yaya Toure was a passenger in midfield. And that brings me to what can loosely be described as a defence. In a word, City’s back line is pathetic. Bacary Sagna and Gael Clichy struggled, Nicolas Otamendi was, as usual, beaten for pace, and John Stones continues to look out of his depth.
In case you haven’t guessed or read my rants before, I have been a City fan since I was a kid and have spoken about the goalkeeper Claudio Bravo before and there is nothing left for me to say about him except ‘why is he still in the team?’ and plead with Guardiola to get rid ASAP.
Claudio Bravo's goalkeeping is proving to be a problem for Manchester City: Analysis: https://t.co/YWFF9TtKUW #SSNHQ pic.twitter.com/iFeM29dl47
— Sky Sports News HQ (@SkySportsNewsHQ) January 15, 2017
Strong defences win titles which is why City’s bid looks to be over, as Pep himself admitted. We are only just over half way through the season but to overthrow Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham, Arsenal, and an improving Man United, playing the kind of football that worked in Spain and Germany but not in the far more competitive environment of the EPL is mission impossible.
Some will start to suggest that Guardiola has been found out and at times on Merseyside he did wear the blank expression of a man struggling to come up with ideas.
However, that doesn’t mean he has lost the plot. He did a brilliant job at Barcelona and rewrote the football tactics book with many teams now copying his style and he did well enough at Bayern Munich, but the fact remains that at the moment, he doesn’t appear to have a Plan B for City.
His main problem is the team he inherited. Up front and in midfield, with the exception of Toure who no longer looks like a game changer, he has real talent but he must now rebuild the defence.
City are a wealthy club and he has to be given the money to buy at least two new defenders, a goalkeeper and maybe even freshen up the strike force. If they don’t, Pep’s first season in the Premier League will be a failure and as good as he might be, his reputation will be questioned.
PEP: In the bad moments we have to be close and I said to the players be positive. We are going to try and keep going. #mcfc pic.twitter.com/C6YzrwHuP0
— Manchester City (@ManCity) January 15, 2017
