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Why do Manchester City Underachieve in the Champions League?

Why are the Premier League’s most expensive team so seemingly inept in Europe? Manchester City have been hugely successful in the Premier League in the last half decade yet have been unable to progress beyond the Last 16 in the Champions League and have, on multiple occasions, been eliminated in the group stage. What is their recurring problem? The Manager? Their playing style? Dependence on key players?

Why do Manchester City underachieve in the Champions League?

Both Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini have taken City into multiple European campaigns and have failed to reach the quarter-final. Both managers have pedigree in domestic competitions, but Mancini has never managed to get past the quarter-final of the Champions League while Pellegrini took Spanish side Villarreal to the semi-final in 2005-06. This would suggest it is not the manager stunting Manchester City’s push for European dominance. Mancini’s record was not particularly glowing in Europe but Pellegrini has fared far better and can get the best out of his team.

Pellegrini is often praised for his attacking philosophy and Manchester City’s playing style is in the same mould. This way of playing is exciting to watch, but can be and has been preyed upon by efficient teams such as Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

In the Premier League, there are very few teams who tend to dominate possession. Only Arsenal and Swansea attempt to dominate in the same way Barcelona and Bayern Munich do with vastly differing degrees of success. The end to end style of play means that City are never really defending for long periods of time and so aren’t as comfortable attempting to soak up long periods of pressure in Europe. This is perhaps their biggest stumbling block as they are still relatively new in Europe’s heavyweight competition.

Is it their defending that is letting them down or is that just half of it? City’s ‘all-out attack’ mentality may be a hit in the Premier League where most seasons they will come close to breaking the 100-goal mark. However in Europe they have struggled to score goals which may be attributed to their dependence on certain players.

Sergio Agüero is undoubtedly City’s best player and has carried them through more games than they would like to admit. Most notably, in their superb 3-2 victory away to Bayern Munich, he scored a breathtaking hat-trick to save City and their European campaign. However they were still dumped out of the competition in the Last 16, losing 3-1 over two legs to Barcelona. His incredible displays serve to highlight two things. The first is that he is a truly gifted player and among the top strikers in the world. The second is that he is woefully undersupported with regard to alternate striking options.

Agüero has outlasted a number of strikers in his five years at City. Carlos Tevez, Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko have all come and gone whilst Stevan Jovetic has left on loan and none, bar perhaps Tevez, can truly be regarded as world class. The current crop of City strikers is comprised of Wilfried Bony and Kelechi Iheanacho and, while Bony played well at Swansea and warranted his move to City, he is perhaps either not quite ready or not good enough to play against Europe’s best teams. Whilst Iheanacho is only a fledgling talent, he clearly has promise, but it is still far too early to throw him into a backup position to Agüero, who does have his fair share of injuries.

Therefore, City’s dependence on Agüero must be rectified. The likes of Edinson Cavani or Karim Benzema, who seem to be constantly linked with moves away from their current clubs, would relieve a huge amount of pressure on the Argentine. These players are difficult to lure away from their clubs as the world’s top strikers are not willingly cast aside by their current employers. However, of all the methods to luring a club into parting ways with their top players, money works best and Manchester City are one of the world’s leading financial powers.

The other player whom City rely on too much is goalkeeper Joe Hart. Hart came under immense scrutiny after a number of high-profile errors caused him to be dropped in favour of former Malaga goalkeeper Willy Caballero. Hart’s starting position was eventually restored and his time on the bench seemed to help banish the demons of his previous performances. Hart has, on multiple occasions, saved City from humiliating defeats, most notably against Borussia Dortmund in 2012 and against Barcelona in 2015. He repelled the attacking talents of Marco Reus, Robert Lewandowski, Neymar, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi: an astounding list of some of the world’s most prominent forwards.

Hart’s talent has of course been expanded exponentially by his performances on the biggest stage and his latest was a man of the match performance in the 2-1 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach in this season’s Champions League. However, a time will come where a player of Messi’s ability or perhaps even less will be able to overpower Hart, Agüero won’t be able to find his goal scoring touch and City will be humiliated.

Perhaps this stems from City’s inability to dominate in midfield. In the Premier League, Yaya Touré and David Silva pull the strings and tear teams apart with a combination of power and technical brilliance. However, in Europe, two of the best midfielders in the Premier League seem to disappear when they are needed most and this perhaps has the largest effect on City as their midfield fails to dominate. Conversely, it forces the defence to work too hard and allows them no relief as the forwards are unable to control the game and play in their opponent’s half.

City’s failure in Europe is a combination of too much emphasis on attacking play, a lack of support for talisman Agüero and a failure to dominate possession in midfield. While it is unlikely these factors can be rectified quickly, it should be noted that Manchester City have a superbly talented team domestically. However, they are still, by all accounts, adolescents in this competition in comparison to the teams they come up against.

They cannot continually be forced to chase games after falling behind and expect to be dug out of a hole each time. If City are to ever seriously to challenge the big boys, it is experience which will save them from themselves.

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