Season 2024/25: Where has it gone wrong for Manchester City?

euronews (in English)

After winning the Premier League four years in a row, Manchester City’s bid for a fifth consecutive title is doubtful.

Transcript

00:00After becoming the only team in Premier League history to win four titles in a row,

00:05Manchester City looked like an unstoppable juggernaut.

00:09But over halfway through the season, they're teetering on the edge of the top four.

00:14So what has happened to City?

00:16And is it too much for even the genius of Pep Guardiola to turn around?

00:20Hello and welcome to Football Now, here from the Albaik Stadium in Qatar.

00:30In recent years, Manchester City have dominated English football in a manner no club has ever done before.

00:37They've won six of the last seven Premier League titles,

00:40and in 2023 became only the second English team ever to win the treble of the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup in a single season.

00:50But the 2024-25 season's results are almost unrecognisable.

00:55Between November 2nd and December 26th, Manchester City won just one of 12 games across all competitions.

01:03So how has it gone so wrong so quickly for Manchester City this season?

01:08There's no easy answer to this, really. I think it's a multitude of things.

01:13The easy answer is, oh, we've lost Rodri.

01:15And obviously he's a big factor. You can't take out the Bell on Door winner and expect not to notice.

01:21Compounding the issue is some of the players, they've had a dip.

01:26And whether that's because of age, in some cases it's because of injury, perhaps caused by age.

01:32I would say five in a row is unlikely, but goodness me, we got to see four in a row.

01:37How many fans of other teams have said that? None.

01:41Erling Haaland recently committed his long-term future to the club after signing a contract to take him to 2034.

01:49But it's fair to say that City's reliance on their Norwegian striker has become detrimental.

01:55Haaland has the most time of any Manchester City player in the Premier League this season, a staggering 97.5% of the team's minutes.

02:05His 19 goals account for 36.5% of City's total, ahead of Phil Foden, chipping in with 13.5%.

02:14There's been a switch in City over the last four or five years.

02:19They probably didn't have a goalscorer that got above 15 goals, but they had five or six players that got in and around that mark.

02:26And now they have Haaland and nobody else.

02:28City have set the stall out. We are going to build this team around Erling Haaland come what may.

02:32My overriding feeling with Haaland at the minute is I feel a bit sympathetic towards him.

02:36He's really trying, but there's only so much he can do. Haaland isn't the issue.

02:40The issue is the house burning around him.

02:43Let's compare this to last season, where Haaland was only required to play 87.7% of the time, scoring 28% of City's goals.

02:52In better form last year, Foden contributed 19.8%,

02:57with Argentina striker Julian Alvarez lightening the load by scoring 11.5% of the team's total.

03:05Alvarez left City to join Atletico Madrid on the eve of this season.

03:10Despite receiving a huge transfer fee, did City actually make a mistake in letting the World Cup winner walk away,

03:17despite not having the backup striker already signed?

03:21It's a really fascinating one as well. When you look back and you see the amount of minutes that he was getting anyway,

03:26Alvarez, he was doing well. He was up there with one of the best minutes ratio for players.

03:31So, such a shame because he's such an exciting player for me.

03:34And now he's absolutely thriving, as they tend to do when they lose to Atletico Madrid.

03:40But we have to move forward with the deal that we've got.

03:43In an attempt to bolster their thin and ageing squad, Manchester City spent big in the recent January transfer window.

03:51Erling Haaland finally has help up front in the form of Omar Mahmoud from Eintracht Frankfurt.

03:5734-year-old defender and club captain Kyle Walker was loaned to AC Milan after seven and a half years at City

04:05and was replaced by Uzbekistan's first ever Premier League player, Inabdulkadir Kuzhinov.

04:11What does the young defender add to the squad and can he fill the hole left by Kyle Walker?

04:17You can see him being aggressive, but he's not crazy. He goes to ground fairly often,

04:22but he doesn't do it without the confidence that he's going to get the ball.

04:26His pace, I think, is something that City will benefit because they have been lacking in pace.

04:30I think he fits the mould of what City typically sign in terms of personality-wise.

04:35Players who are expressive on the pitch but not expressive off the pitch.

04:40Making a lot of signings in January can be seen as an act of desperation,

04:45with selling clubs putting premium prices on their players.

04:49So are these smart moves by City or is it just a reflection of the situation they currently find themselves in?

04:56There should have been more business in the previous summer and then you look forward

05:00at the next summer that we've got and then we've got the Club World Cup in July.

05:04It's had to fall on January to get, I'd say, the majority of City's new business done

05:09to get those players through the door and just to get them fully up to speed.

05:13I don't think there's any problem in having this transitional season for City. I think it's needed.

05:18We've got to still try and qualify for the Champions League, push for top four,

05:22and then we're still in the FA Cup, so all is not lost, ultimately.

05:25But now City evolves, the young players come in, we sit back and enjoy the ride.

05:31After winning four Premier League titles in a row,

05:34expectations are certainly sky high for the Sky Blues.

05:38Let us know if you think they can turn their form around between now and the end of the season

05:43using the hashtag FootballNowManCityCrisis.

05:47That's all we've got time for, though, here from the Albate Stadium in Qatar.

05:51We'll see you next time. Bye for now.

Category

Transcript

Recommended