Pep gets the Ferd degree
MANCHESTER CITY boss Pep Guardiola is in danger of being punished for failing to land a defensive midfielder in the summer.
He knows his failure to sign cover for Fernandinho and left-back Benjamin Mendy is starting to bite him.
The champions have been stunned by three defeats in their last four Premier League outings, seeing them slump to third in the table, seven points behind leaders Liverpool.
Now Guardiola is facing an inquest into why he didn’t recruit someone to take the burden off influential holding midfielder Fernandinho.
The Spaniard missed out on first-choice target Jorginho when he joined Chelsea.
He still had alternatives in mind, including Real Madrid’s Mateo Kovacic and Juventus ace Miralem Pjanic, but refused to buy reinforcements.
And his failure to do so has been exposed, with Fernandinho missing the back-to-back defeats against Crystal Palace and Leicester that have hammered a huge dent in the team’s chances of defending the title.
Guardiola knows Ilkay Gundogan is not an able replacement and got so desperate he even pushed John Stones into midfield.
Neither experiment has worked but Guardiola insists he is not preparing to make new signings in next month’s window.
Fernandinho is still sidelined with his groin problem and there is no indication if he will be fit for Liverpool’s visit to the Etihad on Thursday. Paul Merson’s view
– See pull-out