 "Manchester City: Five reasons why Pep Guardiola’s reigning Premier League champions have struggled this season")
Reigning Premier League champions Manchester City seem to be caught in a web almost five months into the 2024-25 season. From injuries to lack of form of key players, the Pep Guardiola-coached side have problems aplenty this season. And for a club that has dominated English top-flight football for close to a decade and even won the UEFA Champions League once, this lacklustre run of results is something new and is surprising.
Their latest setback was a 1-2 loss to Aston Villa in the Premier League on Saturday , a result that has left them in sixth place with 27 points from 17 matches. City are nine points behind league leaders Liverpool (36 points), and unlike previous seasons, where they have managed to bounce back in the second half of the season, a fifth consecutive title seems unlikely. That loss meant City have now won only one match in the last 12 matches across all competitions.
So, what has gone wrong for City and what are their problems?
Injury worries
One of the major reasons for Manchester City’s downfall is injuries to certain key players. The 10-time champions are enduring an injury-prone season like never before. The latest player to join the long list of injured player was defender John Stones, who was substituted off at half-time against Aston Villa. In fact, Stones was making his competitive return in a month on Saturday, but that was short-lived after he sustained a foot injury that had bothered him before.
Ruben Dias (Calf injury) is another player who has sustained an injury and will be out for up to four weeks , which means he could miss a significant part of the festive season fixtures. Ederson, who missed the Aston Villa game, suffered a niggle. However, none will hurt Manchester City more than Rodri’s anterior cruciate ligament injury (ACL), with Ballon d’Or winner reportedly out for the entire season.
Erling Haaland’s poor form
Erling Haaland, the once indestructible force of Manchester City, seems to be a shadow of his former self this season around. Haaland’s finishing has been a major cause for concern, something that was clearly evident in City’s 0-4 loss to Tottenham on 24 November. Since then, Haaland has scored just three goals and has not scored two or more goals in a Premier League match since scoring a brace against Brentford in September.
City are heavily reliant on Haaland to score goals , more so since Julian Alvarez’s departure from the club ahead of the 2024-25 season. While it remains to be seen if the Norwegian can regain his form in the remainder of the season, he knows what’s to be done. “I haven’t been scoring my chances so I have to do better. A lot of it is on me and I haven’t been good enough. Of course, (confidence is) not the best. We know how important confidence is and you can see that it affects every human being. That is how it is, we have to continue and stay positive even though it is difficult,” Haaland told TNT Sports after the Aston Villa loss.
Lack of creativity in midfield
Without Rodri , City are lacking creativity in midfielder. Phil Foden has been inconsistent of late and even with the presence of Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan, City are lacking a spark in the midfield. And it’s difficult to recollect when Jack Grealish played to his full potential.
This is one of the major reasons why City have not been able to consistently score goals. And their finishing in the final third has been quite unimpressive.
Goal-scoring worries
What comes with lack of creativity in midfield? Goal-scoring worries. This is somewhere Manchester City have not struggled in the past few seasons, but this season, if anything, has been unique for the defending champions. Only in all the wrong ways.
City have scored all but 10 goals in the last nine games in the Premier League. According to Sky Sports, when it comes to goals scored by teams in the last two months, City ranks a lowly 17th among Premier League teams this season. Only Leicester City (9 goals), Everton (Five) and Southampton (Five) have fared worse in the standings led by Chelsea (20 goals). That’s not a pleasant sight if you’re a City fan.
Defensive woes
We’re not even halfway into the 2024-25 season and Manchester City have conceded 25 goals already. The fact that all City conceded in the Premier League were 34 goals is proof that City are enduring a new low defensively. Having said that, City have now conceded opening goals nine times in the Premier League this season, with only Wolves, Southampton and Leicester City having done so more than that.
Injuries to Stones and Dias only weakens City’s case, and while a fifth consecutive Premier League title is a distant dream at the moment, City must first find their mojo back and get back to winning ways.
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