Manchester City need to change fortunes after recent poor form

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A change is needed before it’s too late for the champions.

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00:00Michael, looking at Manchester City, and obviously, you know, something we are incredibly not

00:06used to seeing is them losing four games on the bounce, obviously, across three different

00:11competitions. I mean, we know that they do go on these little runs at the start of the

00:18season, early days, and they turn it into, you know, 20-plus wins come January, February,

00:25to go and trump the title, which they have done so well. You know, Ruben Diaz has come

00:30out and said, please doubt us, you know, because, you know, so it's almost as if he knows they

00:36will be there come that end of season period, where it's so important to pick up wins, but

00:42it's certainly not something that they wanted. And what are the sort of main reasons behind

00:47it, do you feel?

00:48Well, firstly, I love that quote, please doubt us. I thought that's a great thing to say.

00:52And I mean, Guardiola hasn't said those maybe quite as succinctly, quite as quotable, but

00:56he said things like that. He said, you know, that along the lines of there will be drop

01:01points from others, we will, you know, he certainly don't think he would feel that they

01:06can win the title or anything like that. And like, I think he would be a brave person to

01:10bet against them, given their record, and you touched on it there. For the last four

01:14or five years, they have dropped points, let's say in around the autumn, winter months, and

01:20they've had one or two little spells, and they've come back, this is the fourth season

01:23I've covered Man City, and in every single one, there has been a period where I thought,

01:27this doesn't look quite right. Now, I will say that I think this is the most severe of

01:31those periods. This is the most alarming from a City perspective of the four that I've certainly

01:36seen as a journalist. But the big reason, well, there are lots of reasons, the big reason

01:42is injuries. And there's no way of getting around that. City, and you and I have spoken

01:46about this many times before, they have a small squad, Guardiola prefers to work with

01:49smaller numbers, and that's fine when you don't have injuries, but City have had a huge

01:54number of absentees. I've just written an article, the numbers at the moment, including

01:59international dropouts, are up to 10 players. I mean, 10 players when you've got a squad

02:03of 21, 22, it's just incredible numbers. And obviously, he's had to drop in and use his

02:10youth players, Jermaine Simpson-Poosey coming up and playing recently. So that has been

02:14the big problem. Not only the actual injuries and the significant players who have been

02:19missing, but also the fact that I think that it pushes those players who are available

02:24into dangerous levels of fatigue. I think we've seen that with the likes of Rico Loosley,

02:28his performances have suffered, perhaps Erling Haaland as well, just simply because he's

02:32got no option but to play every game. So that is a huge factor. I think Rodri's absence

02:38is key as well. You know, he is the most important player in the City team and has been vital

02:43to them over the last two years, let's say. And he's been missing and Guardiola hasn't,

02:49you know, he said when Rodri got injured, we'll find the solution. Well, at this stage,

02:52they haven't found the solution. And that is something that I think will define whether

02:57City do win the title, is if Guardiola can find the solution. I think that midfield setup

03:02at the moment doesn't look right. Mateo Kovacic is the base of midfield and I tweeted at the

03:06weekend that he set up Erling Haaland with a sublime pass, where he got on the ball,

03:09he drove forward, picked out this, you know, defence-splitting pass. But actually, is that

03:13really what you want from your defensive midfielder? Probably not, in my eyes. So I think that's

03:18part of it. I think an inability to stop counter-attacks has been a huge problem. They're not converting

03:22chances and they're not playing with full intensity for 90 minutes, which again comes

03:26back to the fatigue and the injuries. So there's 101 reasons, but I think that if City can

03:30get back players over the international break, can try and get as many back as possible and

03:34try and build up a bit of momentum, that is going to be important. But I also think that

03:38the next three, four weeks are going to be crucial, because if they don't get players

03:41back and they're playing with fatigue and they're playing without major players, I mean,

03:45we mentioned Rodri, but also Kevin O'Brien, his absence is huge as well. Phil Foden hasn't

03:49hit top form as well. If that continues and they drop more points over the next three,

03:53four weeks, Liverpool could push clear. So I think it's a crucial period for City in

03:59the season when we come back from the international break.

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