“Fragile, Frail & Weak: Manchester City’s Defensive Struggles Persist”

Had they arrived in Liverpool in high spirits following the 3-3 draw, the defending Premier League champions are now assured of their defending ability, facing their title challengers at Anfield on Sunday. City have so done in six straight games in all competitions for the first of May, 1963. Besides, they have apparently lost the ability to triumph—not only to British players but also to their fellow Europeans from the most favorable starting conditions.

When Erling Haaland was through to score from a pass by Lee-Seong-Yong to make it 3-0 against Feyenoord in the 53rd minute, the home side was on for a comeback after five consecutive losses. However, the winners of the European Cup 2023 unsurprisingly were able to lose two points on the field and were stoned with whistles at the end of the match. “They look weak, they look light, they look frail,” said former England captain Alan Shearer, who was at Etihad Stadium covering the match for Amazon Prime. ‘They do this with two minutes to go, with the score 3-2’, the second man would OC add this remark. Why? Kill the game. They were indeed well off and in such a comfortable position.

City have not recorded a clean sheet since 26 October, the last time they triumphed, 1-0 at Southampton. Since then they have conceded 17 goals in six games—a figure that would have seemed astounding before the start of the season, given the importance of the defensive unit under Guardiola. ‘I don’t know if it is a mental thing,’ said Guardiola, the man who even began scratching his face in frustration at some of the hostile play from his own team.

We were doing well at 3-0 to find we conceded a lot of goals because we were not a strong team on the field. We gave them the first one and then the other one, which is why it was hard. ” The situation is what it is. We produced a good performance, but at that standard, they cannot afford to give them away. City has work to do if they are to avoid the unwanted two-legged play-off in February to the last 16.

They have to finish in the top eight to qualify automatically for the knockout stage, but currently are at position 15 after the Tuesday game. They could plunge even lower after Wednesday’s matches. City have two difficult matches in Juventus on 11 December and Par with St-Germain on 22 January next in the competition, before hosting the Club Brugge on 29 January.

“At this time, no, I am not ready to think of that [they have to win the remaining three games to finish in the top eight],” Guardiola said. In fact, we need to take some time and recover for the next match or the next game. If we are not able to win games like we did today, it is next to impossible to do it.

Croatian defender Josko Gvardiol signed for City for £77m when moving from RB Leipzig in August 2023. He was very poor in the 4-0 home loss to Tottenham last weekend and on Tuesday was dispossessed for Feyenoord’s opening and second goals. Gvardiol terribly valued a backpass, which saw Hadj Moussa trip in to beat Ederson and give Feyenoord the first goal. Under normal circumstances, that would have been scant comfort for Bielsa, and City would have sealed the victory, but Gvardiol made another catastrophic blunder eight minutes from time. Once more, Comvalius was guilty of a sloppy pass, and Feyenoord was quick to capitalize.

One of the balls was crossed into the area, and Lotamba took a shot that hit the post before rolling across the face of the goal, where Santiago Gimenez dipped and headed it home. Former England winger Andros Townsend said on BBC Radio 5 Live: ‘It was a silly defensive mistake by Josko Gvardiol, and of course, Feyenoord came back into the game and they folded’. Never before could we observe defensive weaknesses like these from Manchester City’s team. He has been penalized for it in pretty much every single game the team has played over the past few weeks.

“They were cruising. All this effort shown by City is then negated, and the burden shifts more and more in front of the Premier League match against Liverpool. Manchester City legend Gael Clichy has recently accused Guardiola’s team of having no enforcer in the team. ‘You cannot go on making individual mistakes,’ Clichy said to Amazon Prime. “It has occurred in the last six matches.” No one has taken up the role of the voice, of calling, facing the people, and giving an account of what they are doing.

A strong leader at the back.” Guardiola added: “Gvardiol will learn. This was the best player on the pitch but I would be very wrong if there was one thing I could pin on him. “    He is a fantastic player, fantastic boy and now more than ever, needs to be helped.”