Pep’s £64 million fix left no frailties for City to exploit
POINTS FROM LEADERS
DEFEAT AT HANDS OF LEAGUE
TWO days after Leicester City exposed Manchester City’s frailties back in September, Pep Guardiola was granted £64 million to remedy the problem.
It is too simple to say the sole difference between that rollocking 5-2 victory at the Etihad and Saturday’s limp 2-0 defeat at the King Power is Portuguese defender Ruben Dias, but Man City’s record since his arrival is astonishingly good. From his 38 starts, Man City have 31 wins and 24 clean sheets.
Leicester’s best chance to score on Saturday came 10 minutes into the second half. On the back foot for nearly all of the first 45, City showed more endeavour in their attack after the break, and Youri Tielemans had a fine chance to net when he burst forward and collected Kelechi Iheanacho’s pass. The Belgian struck low, but Dias flew across and blocked the shot wide.
Minutes later, Benjamin Mendy scored and from there, Man City had a grip on the game they rarely let go of.
In September, Man City were calamitous at the back, their defenders tripping over each other when they weren’t tripping Jamie Vardy and co inside the penalty area.
Leicester went into Saturday’s game with the same set-up and same approach, but the route to success was now blocked off. This time, there were no frailties to be exploited. That is not to say City performed as well as they did in Manchester. The counter-attack was not as precise, nor as quick.
For that, City rued the absence of Harvey Barnes. He was City’s in-form player when the pain in his knee arrived a month ago, but thanks to the form of Iheanacho and others, his lay-off has so far not dented the club’s hopes too much.
But here, they desperately missed him. It is not just his fleet feet that makes Barnes so good, it’s his urgency to get forward. He never delays. When he’s waiting for the ball, he thinks about how to get it forward as swiftly as possible so that his first touch is always positive. A little more of that could have seen City catch their opponents in a disorganised state on a few more occasions.
Would taking Dias out and putting Barnes in have changed the result? Maybe not, but it would have been a contest more closely resembling what a match between first and third should be.
THERE’S never a good time to play a side on a run of 14 away victories in all competitions but after the international break is less than ideal.
A combination of multiple matches and travelling can leave players particularly tired. Man City’s solution was to leave stars on the bench. Joao Cancelo, John Stones, Phil Foden, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling, and Ferran Torres started for their countries on either Tuesday or Wednesday this week, and Guardiola named all of them among his substitutes.
Dias and Kyle Walker were the only two to play in midweek and line up at the King Power Stadium.
Despite that decision, the Man City 11 was not visibly weaker than it usually is, whereas if Leicester had done the same, and allowed Kasper Schmeichel, Jonny Evans, Wilfred Ndidi, and Kelechi Iheanacho to watch from the sidelines, they would have been fielding a noticeably poorer side.
Then there’s the issue of City changing their plan to face the league leaders. Rodgers’ men have a style of play they use in most matches, but that is abandoned for a safety-first, deep-lying set-up against Man City. They needed a week to work on it. They were given a day.
That Man City were able to rotate so freely and still put out a world-class side is, from City’s viewpoint, and likely that of a neutral too, frustrating.
There was no glamour to the gulf in resources like there is a mismatched FA Cup tie. This was first against third in the top flight, it shouldn’t have been so onesided.
Man City and Guardiola have taken advantage of what is available to them and built a brilliant team. It would just be less deflating from a Leicester stance if it felt like their level of performance and dominance was achievable. Given what each team can spend on transfers and wages, it’s not.
SO City’s perfect defence had just two games together before something went awry. The Wesley
Rodgers has said he has seen improvements in Perez’s physicality and movement, and he showed that on Saturday
Fofana-Jonny Evans-Caglar Soyuncu combination looked ready to shut down any attack they faced, but they did not get an opportunity to take on the most dangerous forward line in the country together after the latter’s positive Covid test and subsequent quarantine in Turkey.
Daniel Amartey did a steady job in his place. The defensive basics were all there. It’s just that the drive out from the back and the composure on the ball that Soyuncu brings was not.
Against Man City, and with such little time to prepare, sticking with the 3-4-1-2 shape that served City so well against Sheffield United and Manchester United was the correct decision.
But with Soyuncu highly unlikely to be able to play against West Ham next weekend, a switch to four at the back may be required. That allows City to get more of their best available players on the pitch, like Ricardo Pereira in at full-back, even if it would require some square pegs in round holes, like James Maddison on the wing.
That decision between shape and personnel is one Rodgers will have to make this week.
LET’S say Rodgers does stick with the current shape at West Ham. Then there is only one place for Maddison to go, which is in the number 10 role currently occupied by Ayoze Perez.
If both were in top form, Maddison is the better player. He’s more creative, he’s better at fashioning space for himself, and he’s improved in his scoring this season to match Perez in one of the areas the Spaniard was perhaps previously better in.
The issue is that only one of them is on top form. Maddison made his comeback after more than a month out on Saturday and was rusty. That is not a surprise nor a concern. Perez is anything but. Previously, these games where City have less of the ball, and less time on it, have not suited him. He’s a player that can get lost amid the intensity of a match, and brushed off the ball by a quick press. He’s a five-touch player, rather than a two-touch one, and in these games where City must move the ball at pace, he can be detrimental to the team’s effort.
But Rodgers said in his prematch interview that he has seen improvements in Perez’s physicality and movement, and he showed that on Saturday as one of City’s best performers.
His close control was excellent, turning out of trouble regularly, while he always had a forward ball on his mind, playing it quickly, as was shown for Jamie Vardy’s offside goal. Maddison needs games to shake off the rustiness but if it’s a choice between him and Perez at West Ham, the Spaniard should get the nod right now.
THE reason there is focus on West Ham in the above and less consideration of the game that has just been played is because if any match didn’t matter, it was this one.
If City fail to finish in the top four, a home defeat to the champions will not be looked back on as a ‘what if?’ moment. Losing only 2-0, having defended pretty sturdily for an hour, can not be considered a knock to their confidence either. It’s a game that can quickly be forgotten.
Next weekend is different. Lose and the pressure is on. Win and City are handsomely placed having also dealt a direct blow to their rival.
Rodgers won’t say it, but this was a free hit. Next weekend, meanwhile, could be a defining moment.