Back in January 2016, when Guardiola had confirmed that he was leaving Bayern Munich and was heading for Manchester City, every Citizen fan couldn’t hide their excitement, those were good times. We couldn’t wait for the season to end so that Guardiola could take charge and make the citizens the most feared team in all of Europe. Not that Pellegrini was a bad coach, he was great, he won us the Premier League in 2013-2014, and the Football League Cup twice, and he had won the League as soon as he arrived in 2013.
But Guardiola is something else. He is like a unicorn. An oracle. A legend. A miracle worker. Pellegrini had done very well, but he always failed in Europe. Guardiola was going to take the Citizens to the promised land. With his impeccable record with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, Guardiola was our wet dream.
23 games later, and City is in 5th place, ten points behind leaders Chelsea, who are on 56 points, he even admitted himself that he is out of the title race. So what went wrong, how did our wet dream turn into a nightmare so quickly?
I must admit, when he sent Joe Hart away on loan, I was a little bit shocked, but he was replacing him with Claudio Bravo. Bravo had done very well with Barcelona, he was part of the historic treble winning team, he was Barca’s top goalkeeper, and he was excellent with the ball at his feet, and Guardiola explained that he wanted to play from the back, just like he did with Barca and Bayern, and poor Joe Hart, though an excellent shot stopper, he was jittery and shaky with the ball at his feet, he didn’t inspire much confidence in that department. So it made sense, Hart had to go.
Next on the loan list was Samir Nasri. No complaints there. He was no longer needed. He had been away on injury for some time and I honestly had forgotten he even exists, and we played well without him. Don’t get me wrong, Nasri used to be a great player, he was one for the future when he was at Arsenal, but he never really lived up to expectations.
City did well during the preseason games, and they started the season on fire. City was untouchable, playing the most beautiful and exciting football in the league, winning isn’t enough for Guardiola, he must win with style, and boy were we treated with stylish football. For the first six games. The seventh game of the season was against Tottenham and we came crashing back down to earth.
Before that seventh game, City dominated their opponents, starved them of possession, and always finished of their opponents with beautiful goals. Then one day, it all just stopped. It’s as if the team was suffering load shedding.
Claudio Bravo was letting in almost every shot on target, he still is. If you shoot on target, theres a 90% chance it will end up in the back of the net. Cities opponents realised that if they put pressure on Cities defence, and pressed them up high on the pitch they would be forced into mistakes. Every time Bravo gets a back pass, the hairs at the back of my head stand up and my heart stops beating.
To make matters worse, cities defenders Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta, Aleksandar Kolarov, Gael Clichy and Bacary Sagna are all over the age of 30. With the exception of Nicolas Otamendi 28, John Stones 22 and Oluwatosin Adarabioyo who is a 19 year old youngster who has only made one substitute appearance this season. John stones is still inexperienced, one day he has a great game, the next he makes embarrassing mistakes which always end up as goals. That’s just the problems in defence.
In the middle of the field we have David Silva, 31, who is also blowing hot and cold. There was a time before Guardiola’s time, when Silva was Cities best player, he carried the team on his back and he will forever be remembered as one of the best to ever wear Cities badge, but recent injuries have not been kind to him and he is a shadow of his former self. The same thing can be said about Yaya Toure, 33, who also used to be Manchester Cities greatest of all time box to box midfielders, but age has caught up with him, and the squabble he and his agent had with Guardioala at the beginning of the season did nothing but bring unnecessary pressure and attention to the club. A squabble which I believe isn’t truly over but it’s still bubbling under for the mean time. Not only did Guardiola bring in Bravo at the beginning of the season, he brought in 21 year old Leroy Sane, who has also been hot and cold, depending on the opponent. 30 year old Nolito, who I believe was another mistake, 26 year old Ilkay Gundogan, who has done very well when available, he is out injured. Already before Guardiola’s arrival in that middle field we had the amazing and talented Kevin De Bruyne, 25, who will one day win the ballon d ór if he continues in his current form, which Im sure he would because De Bruyne is no flash in the pan, he’s not a one trick pony, he is the real thing. On top of that in the middle field Guardioala has Jesus Navas, who has never really lived up to expectations, I have no idea how he is still at City after all these years.
Now in attack, City has some of the most lethal strikers in the League. The first one that comes to mind is Sergio Aguero, he is one of the most prolific attackers in all of Europe, over the years City has had to fight of attention from Real Madrid and Barcelona for Aguero’s services, but he remained loyal to us.
We have Raheem Sterling and Kelechi Iheanacho, who are still very young and they have bright futures ahead of them. And then, the most promising of them all is Gabriel Jesus. The 19 year old brazillian who was brought in by Guardiola as well is also going to be the best attacker we have ever seen. Guardiola had to fight of Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Juventus, Manchester United and PSG for this young man’s signature, and he is already proving he was worth the trouble.
I think Guardiola was unfortunate because when he came to Manchester City, he inherited an ageing squad. He also made some mistakes too, he isn’t innocent in all of this. I believe he tried to make too many changes all at once. He should have been careful, and tried to adjust to the English league. When he was in Spain and Germany, he dominated from the beginning of the season all the way to the end. He hardly ever lost. The English Premier League is a totally different ball game.
Every team in this league can show you flames. And when it came to tactics, some players can’t execute them, some player can only execute them for one half, but the second half they go missing. City has played so many games were they dominated but lost the game because they had no penetration, they couldn’t finish of their chances, and they were punished and rightfully so.
But I believe Manchester city will come alright. We have some young and exciting players in our team. I’m sure at the end of the season the ageing defence will be over hauled. Ageing midfielders like Toure and Silva will be of loaded. It’s only Guardiola’s first season in charge. I believe he has learnt his lessons, all of them the hard way. In his mind he already knows who he is going to get rid of at the end of the season. He is just waiting for the season to end, and those players who will be of loaded, they know themselves, the writing has been on the wall for a while now. I still trust and believe in Guardiola, I believe he will make this team a force to be reckoned with, and he has the full support of the board and owners of the team, even the supporters. My only fear is we might not make it into a champions league spot this year, but it’s still early days, a lot can happen, nothing is obvious in this league, and ten point gap from the top isn’t bad, the League is Chelsea’s to lose, anything can happen. Last night’s 4-0 win against West Ham has relieved some pressure, the youngsters did well up front.
This weekend it’s a home game against Swansea City, last night the roller coaster went up a very steep hill, maybe this weekend it will be rushing down again, who knows, all I know is this ride has me worn out and I can’t wait for the season to end already.
Contributed by
Paseka Majorobela
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