Manchester City are in a desperate position at the moment, especially given their stature in English football they have earned during the last 10-12 years. They have been England’s most successful club during the same period and Pep Guardiola has effectively reduced the Premier League to a one-horse race by winning six Premier League titles in last seven years.
However, at the moment, the Cityzens are going through a very lean patch, losing five consecutive matches in a row across all competitions. Their 4-0 defeat to Tottenham, which was the club’s heaviest loss at home in 21 years, has set the alarm bells ringing even among the most assured of the Manchester City supporters. Simply, the players who should be stepping up for Man City are doing anything but. If anything, the team may be dragged down by them.
The statistics of a couple of veterans really worrying:
While the absence of Ballon D’or winner Rodri has been a huge factor and Kevin de Bruyne has also been able to start matches for quite some time now, the performance of a few key players have been absolutely shocking. İlkay Gündoğan, whose amazing brace won the Cityzens the Premier League title in 2022, and who has won five Premier League titles and a UEFA Champions League with the marauding Manchester City team under Guardiola, looks a shadow of his former self since coming back to the club after having spent a season at FC Barcelona.
In fact, Guardiola’s decision to bring back the 34-year-old German midfielder from Barcelona appears to be a step backward, however harsh that might sound. Gündoğan has an assist and two goals from 17 matches this season, hardly the kind of a performance one would look for from a man who has replaced de Bruyne as the No. 10 this season.
He was played alongside Rico Lewis in a double-pivot tactical formation against Tottenham Hotspur by Pep Guardiola, but it was clear that he lacked the pace to foil the moves by Spurs. Not to mention that Gündoğan’s ability to make those key runs into the opposition penalty box and score goals from the edge of the box seems to have waned considerably. It seems pretty obvious that he is spending his last season at the club.
What is more concerning for Guardiola, however, is the off-form of pivotal and versatile Bernardo Silva, who is four years younger than Gündoğan. Bernardo has won one more Premier League title with the Cityzens than Gündoğan has besides winning the Champions League.
Bernardo has three assists and a goal to show for in 18 matches this season, which is a pretty awful return for a player like him. To be fair to him, the 30-year-old Portuguese has played in a few different positions, but that does not take away from the fact that he has been ordinary in each of them.
Bernardo’s usual ability to dribble through tight spaces in the final third and play those incisive short passes to his colleagues has been sorely missing this season, He has switched to a central position from the right wing recently, but that seems to have done little to improve the graph of his performance.
Bernardo’s contract expires in 2026, which means that he will get to play at least one more season at Manchester City. He should still have a few years left at the top and hence, the Manchester City supporters will be hoping that he regains his form pretty soon.