Manchester City: More Injuries, More Problems

As David Silva joins the seemingly never-ending list of Manchester City injuries, we wonder if it’s really all so bad after all.

No club, for any sport, actively seeks to have a plethora of injuries in the squad. You have some of the greatest raw talent in the game, but they also have the fortitude of a papier mache football. It’s self-defeating and usually a recipe for long term disaster, if not short as well. Even so, that doesn’t stop injuries from being usable, or even in some ways desirable.

So your team sucks, well, it’s because this player basically carries the entire squad but he’s injured. You didn’t really beat us. May as well have been the Elite Development Squad. Or how about this for a catch 22 – certain player is paid far too much to be benched but is playing far too badly to be regularly played (looking at your Eliaquim Mangala). In this scenario, it’s not unthinkable that some “injury” may occur suddenly and without any warning, likely not broadcast live on tele, that guarantees a little down time.

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Be that as it may, I’ll bet Manchester City manager (for now) Manuel Pellegrini wishes he had just one or two less injuries, particularly in key areas, plaguing his squad. We discussed before how Pellegrini himself, only a month ago, alluded to his success or failure being based on whether or not his players can remain fit. Sure, you can scoff at such an obvious notion, but as Manchester City come off the back of a painful defeat to title rivals Leicester with only more injuries to show for it, don’t say you weren’t warned.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Pellegrini’s misfortunes are compounded by the relative lack of variety in terms of positions of those injured. Speaking after the 3-1 drubbing to Leicester, Pellegrini had this to say, as reported by the Manchester Evening News:

"“Yes [it is stretched],” Pellegrini said after the defeat to Claudio Ranieri’s rampant Leicester. “We have seven players injured at the moment in the same positions. Two centre-backs, Kompany and Mangala, and in attack, De Bruyne, Navas, Bony, Nasri and now Silva. That makes it more difficult.“Let’s hope we can recover in the next few days. We didn’t have the usual energy. We’ve been using only 14 [outfield] players in a very important month.”"

For those of you who watched the game (and I’m very sorry) you’ll know “didn’t have the usual energy” is just about the biggest understatement you could say in regards to the shambolic performance by City in front of their home crowd.

Even so, a cursory glance at that list of players out with injuries paints a fairly grim picture. Kevin De Bruyne, arguably among the best players you’ve got on the squad, is out for 10 weeks total and just about every other natural replacement isn’t fairing much better. Jesus Navas? No he’s out for three weeks with a hamstring injury. Samir Nasri? Feel like you haven’t seen him in months? You haven’t. He’s been out of full time action since October with a pretty gruesome (think, 100 stitches gruesome) thigh muscle injury.

Now to top the pile, City’s other midfield ace and arguably the backbone of the club, David Silva, is out of commission too. A year ago or before, such an event would be borderline horrific and make many seriously question how the club intends to compete at the very highest level. This year? Well, hmm. Actually, we could probably spin this one as a positive as well. Truth be told, Silva hasn’t been hot (ie, himself) in a good long while.

Silva has managed only three goals in all competitions for City this year and, perhaps more damning, a mere eight assists. In his last ten games, he’s scored one goal and made one goal, both at home to Crystal Palace. Go back further and the statistics become even dimmer. From September 15 to today, he’s only netted two and assisted in four, that’s in some twenty one games. That’s not good for anybody, let alone Merlin.

Speculation is rife about Silva’s struggles to find his usual form this season. A lingering injury? A dread of getting the axe by Pep Guardiola? It could be anything, only really Silva has a chance of knowing. In the end though, continually throwing him against the wall and hoping he will finally stick was a mistake of Pellegrini’s making. Manchester City lack depth, to be sure, but Silva needs a break to find himself and that should, in theory, make more of a difference in City’s long term successes.

Don’t be surprised if you see Pellegrini answer with Kelechi Iheanacho again for the pivotal game against Spurs. Not that he has an awful lot of choice, but Iheanacho has proved himself to be dangerous in every game he’s played and has almost certainly deserved his shot. Another side benefit is, of course, that young talent like Kelechi or defender Angelino can break through when otherwise they wouldn’t even get a look in. Still that’s a gamble and, with four trophies up for grabs, it’s likely one Pellegrini is remiss to make.

In the end though, he has little choice. He was right, Manchester City’s season was, is and will be, by and large, defined through injuries. Ultimately the Sky Blues struggled with fitness and it culminated in a dismal showing against a hungry Leicester. It’s not over yet though, and all bad injuries must come to an end. Can City hold on, they can expect a stronger finish with a more complete squad to take them to the end of the road.

Next: Manchester City - The Pep Guardiola Effect

Maybe even Silva will come back refreshed, revitalised and ready to make opposing defenders look silly once more. If it even accomplished just that, I’d say we’d have yet another positive to come out of the negative of injuries this year.