“Were incredible machine”
© Imago
When Manchester City loses 2: 3 at home against a injury-placed Real Madrid or collects five goals with some failures in the Gunners offensive at FC Arsenal, it is clear that something is wrong. Never since Pep Guardiola’s office took office in summer 2016, the Citizens have been as vulnerable as this season. In 38 games, the most valuable team in the world with 1.3 billion euros was lost twelve times as a loser. After the defeat against Real, City threatens to discharge the Champions League as early as in 2012/13 and in the Premier League you also run your own expectations. With 15 points behind leaders Liverpool, there are currently only fifth place.
“We have been an incredible machine in recent years. But this year we are not, ”said Guardiola before the recent setback against the royal and again stood in the center of criticism:“ At the moment I’m just not good enough. I cannot give the team a handle to deal with such situations. That just happens more often, that’s the truth. ”Particularly noticeable: the English champion always concedes late goals or gives promising guided tours.
There is currently little left of the dominance of earlier years in which the starting coach won a total of 15 trophies with the Skyblues. The main reason for this is the long lack of balloon-d’or winner Rodri, but at the moment there seems to be an even lower rooted problem in the club. Since the beginning of November, no team from Europe’s top 5 leagues has conceded in all competitions more goals than one City (44 in 23 games). Only the also crising Tottenham also comes to this value – but with two more games.
The holey defense can therefore be identified as one of the main reasons for the repeating weak performance of the team this season. In total, they have already conceded 63 goals, which corresponds to a quota of 1.66 counter fights per game. For comparison: in 2020/21 you only got 42 in the entire season. Even if you use the worst defensive performance under Guardiola from last season, it was still significantly better than the current with 1.12 goals per game.
These many goals lead to the fact that City is likely to lose as many games as never before in a season since Guardiola’s start in 2016. In 31.6 percent of their duels, the Citizens are currently under the square – statistics that are alien to the team under the leadership of the Catalan. City is already at twelve bankruptcy and equalized the value of 2019/20 when the league was lost to Liverpool. At that time, however, this brand was played in 58 games at the end of the season.
