And that’s the end of that chapter. In the space of a few months, the character of Manchester City has been utterly warped. Once the dashing star of the Champions League show, this is now a team whose response to every opposition attack is little more than an “uh oh, Spaghetti-o.” The City team you thought you knew is gone.
That much was apparent within four minutes at the Santiago Bernabeu. Opponents have beaten City before, particularly when they’re in the all-white of Real Madrid. They’ve got lucky, they’ve come up with something special, they’ve been aided by a tactical misstep by Pep Guardiola. What they’ve rarely been is indisputably superior to the champions of England. It has never been quite so easy as to clip a long pass into the space behind City’s high line — no pressure to force you into a hurried decision — and unleash your superstar forward.
City looked like what they have been this season, even to an extent before Rodri went down in September. England’s fringe Champions League qualifier against an upgraded version of last season’s winners? 6-3 on aggregate sounds about right. They had their moments in the first leg of the tie but when Madrid needed to move through the gears, they didn’t find it that difficult. Raul Asencio clipped the ball over the top, Kylian Mbappe got on his bike and that was that. From there on out, it was a question of the margin, of how many celebrations Mbappe might want to dig out of the locker.
It is not as if the mistakes made tonight were particularly unique to this game. Ederson’s goalkeeping instincts left him a while back, rather than upgrade on him last season City tied up his back up Stefan Ortega. Even with Julian Alvarez in the squad last season, Guardiola always seemed to be teetering on the brink of having too few forwards. What would happen if Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland were unavailable at the same time?
Here was the answer. In the first half, the visitors had 72 touches in the final third to Madrid’s 42. The sum of City’s attacking output? One shot. That tally wasn’t doubled until Phil Foden pumped one from 30-ish yards in the 67th minute. Twenty minutes-plus might go by without the men in maroon manufacturing a penalty box touch. Over two and a half years, this has become a team designed to create shots for Haaland. Switch out the Norwegian powerhouse for Omar Marmoush, who has looked at his best playing off a No. 9, and no one in the attack seems to have a reference point.
Least of all Marmoush, one of three January signings thrust in for the second leg having missed the first. Nico Gonzalez’s tough night culminated with a consolation goal. The 92 minutes before were a reminder that no one midfielder can offer sufficient physicality and dynamism if matched up against Aurelien Tchouameni, Dani Ceballos and Jude Bellingham. Abdukodir Khusanov will be a better player in the future for the trying moments he had against Vinicius Junior. He improved as the game went on but, as against Chelsea, from a rather low base.
Further reinforcements will doubtless come in the summer. Once again, John Stones’ night was marred with injury. His fitness cannot be planned on. Nor can Kevin De Bruyne’s. It has long since been apparent that Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan can’t do what they used to.
So then, just replace them, right? City have all the money they need for Florian Wirtz, Bruno Guimaraes and whoever else might take their fancy. Then again, recruitment is as much art as science and the pictures City have been painting of late — Matheus Nunes, Jeremy Doku, the returning Gundogan — are not enough to fill you with confidence in those who will be reporting to incoming sporting director Hugo Viana.
Anyway, this might be more than a refresh of an ageing squad. A full rebuild is required. There are foundational issues here.
The City press of this team has been somewhere between diffident and non-existent for some time now, it is only this season that teams have seen the value of hitting the space in behind. Despite that, the backline remains not far behind halfway. Given how they defended for Mbappe’s hat-trick goal, you can perhaps see why City don’t drop into a low block.
The statistics for set piece goals conceded this season are hardly alarming in comparison with other teams but compared to their past selves, City are giving up more shots and more goals from dead balls than they have in recent seasons. When Jude Bellingham rose above the entire opposition at the near post early on, you could see why.
Guardiola has bent the tactics of football to his will more than once over the past two decades, indeed the more direct style of play that the Premier League has embraced might be said to have started with City’s 2022-23 run-in. They went long to Haaland and De Bruyne and let them cook. The game is becoming more athletic, midfields defined by the running power and strength of Bellingham, Declan Rice and Joao Neves. City have that up top in Haaland, but right across this tie, they have looked lighter, slower and weaker than Madrid.
That needs to change. This team too, perhaps their manager’s approach as well. The richest club in the world, coached by one of the finest minds in the game, can be as trusted as anyone to adapt to a new way of doing things. This period in the City tale has comprehensively ended.
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