Pep has problems with the Citizens
● Pep Guardiola faces a testing week that could prove crucial in arresting Manchester City’s slump and reviving the defence of their premier league title.
City end 2018 with a visit to Southampton before opening 2019 with leaders Liverpool at the Etihad, when defeat for City could leave them 10 or more points off first place.
Such an outcome could prompt Guardiola to have a change of heart and invest in new blood in the January transfer window to try to revive their title challenge.
City’s sudden collapse, with three defeats in their last four premier league games, has been blamed on the absence of injured holding midfielder Fernandinho and the lack of a suitable replacement.
The continued injury problems of French left-back Benjamin Mendy, and the recent loss of form of right-back Kyle Walker, have also presented Guardiola with a problem.
Mendy’s replacement Fabian Delph has turned in some sub-par displays and was sent off in City’s most recent loss, at Leicester, earning him a three-match suspension.
All of which begs the question whether City will invest in the transfer window.
The Champions League, not won by Guardiola since Barcelona triumphed in 2011, is a burning priority for the manager and the club’s Abu Dhabi owners, even though publicly they claim the premier league title is their major target.
Guardiola has always insisted he will do no business in this window, waiting until the summer to strengthen a squad that, until the current run, looked deep enough to cope with any number of injuries or loss of form.
“When we created the squad at the beginning of the season, it was not to go to the January window except if we have problems,” said Guardiola last month. “But I have a deep squad and a lot of players cannot play when I trust them a lot. They believe I don’t like them but that is not true.” Now, City appear to have those “problems” to which Guardiola referred and there is a distinct possibility City will move to stem the “crisis” by signing either midfield cover or a new left back.
Tanguy Ndombele, the Lyon midfielder who impressed in his two meetings with City in the Champions League group stage this season, claimed this month Guardiola had tried to sign him in the summer.
The fact that Uefa have abolished the cuptied rule for this season’s competitions also means Ndombele could play for City in the knockout stages of the Champions League.
With a summer move for the player looking inevitable, there is the distinct possibility the English club could try to move the transfer forward by six months.
Fullback remains a more complicated issue and, having spent over £125m (R2.3bn) in little over a week in the summer of 2017 in signing Mendy, Walker and Brazilian Danilo, it is an area that should not need strengthening.
For this week, Guardiola has to come up with a solution at left back. Converted midfielder Oleksandr Zinchenko is a possible replacement for the suspended Delph but the Ukrainian is another player to be suffering a dramatic loss of form at present.
Brazilian Danilo, very much a back-up last season, can play either fullback position if Guardiola is not tempted to recall Kyle Walker following a couple of torrid recent outings.
It leaves the possibility open of Guardiola playing centrehalf John Stones at right-back or even playing with three central defenders.