After Everton disaster, Manchester City, Pep need to spend now!
After a 4-0 rout at Goodison Park, disaster is upon Manchester City. To salvage anything from the season for the next one, changes via the transfer window need to occur immediately.
Well, who could have seen that happening: Everton wiping the floor with Manchester City and throwing the remaining dirty, disheveled rags — what amounts to Pep Guardiola‘s catastrophic maiden voyage at the Etihad — away into trash bin of history.
I did. Sort of.
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But before I explain how I told you so, let me insist there was always going to be a bumpy transition when Guardiola finally took over. I think everyone, including me, lost sight of this fact in lieu of the white hot start Guardiola and the boys had. Undefeated in the first 10 matches, not to mention an easy victory over Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United at Old Trafford without Sergio Aguero, it perhaps was excusable to hope that City would escape the seemingly never-ending doldrums it now finds itself.
Reality, however unpleasant, has now set in. I think we’re fooling ourselves if we believe City has a shot at winning the title at this very low point in the season. It can’t defend with any prolonged resilience. Claudio Bravo is a keeper who lets more shots by then he stops. The key cogs in the central midfield are either perpetually injured (Ilkay Gundogan), old, fat, slow, fickle and a diva (Yaya Toure), old, overworked, can’t behave (Fernandinho), old, injured and or just mediocre (Fernando & Fabian Delph). Throwing old, slow, out-of-position (Pablo Zabaleta) as a solution to the lack of options was desperate, at best. Not to mention its most potent offensive weapons, (Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva and Raheem Sterling) are in poor form at the same time.
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For most of this, Guardiola is to blame. He foisted the hapless Bravo on City. He bought plenty of attackers, most of which he can’t field at once. Gabriel Jesus isn’t quite eligible. And how often do Nolito and Leroy Sane play these days? What Guardolia needed to address, as I had harped on for month now, was the aging pieces in midfield and defense that weren’t compatible with his complex tactics. All he managed in this regard was the aforementioned injury-prone Gundogan and John Stones, who had an awful Merseyside return, gifting the Toffees their fourth goal in a way only he could do. Stones has not yet begun to return the £50 million investment doled out on his move to the Etihad.
All of these issues were foreseeable — I foresaw them. Whether it was hubris about his footballing genius or some other ideological compulsion, Guardiola has presided over City like he didn’t. Now, the sad state of things is impossible to ignore. Changes in personnel must happen; thorough changes in personnel must happen. Why wait until the summer to continue the overhaul? A lot needs to be done. Start sooner than later. Bring in a pacey, versatile wing back or another holding midfielder with a high completion percentage, so you build some momentum for the next year. Spend! So hearing there are no plans to do so in this month is disheartening.
They say insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting a change in result. Well, Guardiola is flirting with it.
Next: Three Key Takeaways: Everton Thump Manchester City 4-0