Manchester City had some hard questions answered in Saturday’s Manchester Derby loss. It’s been clear that the squad needs some rejuvenation, but multiple players were exposed in a way on Saturday that would make even their staunchest supporters begin to question.
Manchester City Need to Rejuvenate Squad Following Manchester Derby Loss
Manchester City Issues Against United
The problem’s that undid Manchester City against Manchester United are pretty easy to explain. United had so much pace that they completely overwhelmed City in the first 35 minutes of this game. It’s easy to see it coming, but dealing with elite pace in a derby is much harder than can be prepared for.
With that being said, City did a poor job against Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Daniel James in that first half. United kept turning City over and hitting them on the counter. Fernandinho or John Stones struggle against pace in any setting, but United’s post-turnover counter really exposed them.
United’s forwards were even beating the City full-backs with ease. Angelino had by far his worst game in a City shirt and exposed some issues about his play that are not going away long term. As well, despite having a ton of pace, Kyle Walker is still going to have problems defending against Rashford in space.
Fixes Following Manchester Derby Defeat
The only fix for a team with too many slow centre-backs is to sign a faster centre-back. City have, in the past been, linked to players like Dayot Umpecano (Gregg Bakowski, The Guardian) and Ruben Dias (Konstantinos Lianos, The Express). Both are quick young centre-backs with good passing skills but questionable consistency.
The more concerning question is what to do about left-back. Manchester City spent roughly €64 million on Benjamin Mendy and Angelino. Mendy has really struggled this season with his crossing accuracy nor has his positioning been solid, and Angelino is a good solid passer but doesn’t have the athleticism to keep up with world-class forwards.
It is a good sign for City that Oleksandr Zinchenko is back in training and should be match fit in time for the Christmas period. He has been City’s best left-back in 2019, but there are still questions about whether he is a long-term solution. But realistically this is not a question that will be answered in the next six months.
Big Problems
There isn’t really a fix for players struggling with their form. Whenever a great player is struggling with their form, the team needs to wait it out as long as possible. Sometimes it turns around, like Luis Suarez’s early struggles this season at Barcelona, but other times it can take a while to flip, just ask Thomas Muller and Bayern Munich.
David Silva and Bernardo Silva have both had poor seasons by their standards. It has been especially bad in recent weeks and were getting to the point where a change might be necessary. Pep Guardiola should start Riyad Mahrez on the wing at least. The Algerian has been quite good in recent weeks and got an assist on Saturday.
Deciding what to do with David Silva is much more difficult. The Spaniard is a different level of club legend, in the final season of a historic Premier League career. He wants to play a lot and it’s easy to just accommodate that, but if his performances start impacting the team’s play and results in a negative way, how quickly does Guardiola hook the club captain?
If he does decide to there are plenty of worthwhile options. He should be starting Ilkay Gundogan to give Rodrigo some help in midfield, especially in the big games, and Phil Foden has started showing the signs that he not only deserves to play but maybe becoming City’s best creator.
Going Forward
Manchester City have their final Champions League group game on Wednesday, in Croatia against Dinamo Zagreb. It promises to be a wild atmosphere, as Zagreb is still looking to qualify for the knockout stages, but City could field a completely changed squad since they have already won their group.
That decision will likely depend on how serious they see the challenge of playing Arsenal on Sunday. Who knows what Arsenal will look like, but Pierre Emerick Aubameyang is always a threat in behind. City will have to do a better job accounting for pace before the game starts than they did against United.
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