Following a 1-1 draw at home against Southampton on Sunday, Manchester City have now gone five games without a win, leading to talk of a mini-crisis for Pep Guardiola to deal with.
The winless run is the Spaniard’s longest as a manager, and Sport on Monday reckon they know the reasons why all of this is currently happening at the Etihad.
Firstly, individual defensive mistakes, perfectly exemplified by John Stones’ backpass that led to Nathan Redmond’s goal on Sunday.
Secondly, the fact that Manchester City have gone at least 1-0 down in all of their last five games (mostly due to defensive mistakes) makes everything harder for the Premier League leaders.
Thirdly, the attack appears to have dried up, and Sport blame that on Sergio Agüero, who hasn’t scored or assisted in any of the last five games, despite scoring 11 previously.
The fourth point is the club’s struggle away from home, especially in their inability to stop the opposition from having chances, allowing 12 shots on average away from home compared to 6.2 at home.
Finally, Sport reckon Guardiola’s indecision when it comes to tactics is confusing the players and stopping them from finding consistency.
A 4-1-4-1 was used against Celtic and Barcelona, while City set up in a 4-2-3-1 against Tottenham before moving to three at the back against Everton in a 3-4-2-1, which was kept in a 3-5-2 against Southampton.
So, if Pep Guardiola gets his defence to avoid making mistakes and gets them to score goals, improves away from home, stops conceding first and sticks to one or two tactics, all will be well.
Easy, right?
