Football News: Team Review – Manchester City

Team Review – Manchester City

League Position: 1st

Ins And Outs

Ins:
Savinho from ESTAC Troyes

Outs:
Taylor Harwood-Bellis to Southampton
Sergio Gomez to Real Sociedad
Tommy Doyle to Wolverhampton Wanderers

With a long way to go in the window still, City have done good business so far. Offloaded some of their surplus players, including one of the army of full-backs Pep has wasted money on. His inability to purchase enough quality full-backs has led to him just giving up on playing with them at all! The arrival of Savinho could be a key signing, with his ability being key to Girona’s impressive season last time out. If he reaches anything like the levels he reached last season, Savinho could be a game-changer for them.

Goalkeepers:

Ederson
Stefan Ortega
Scott Carson

At one time Ederson seemed absolutely ideal for the way Guardiola likes to play, now he is no longer even the certain number 1. Partly down to his injuries and loss of form, partly down to Ortega stepping up when called upon and earning the right for more opportunities. Like Ederson, he is suspect at times, but he is extremely well suited to the way the team plays, which makes up for any deficiencies in his game to a very large extent.

Defenders:

Ruben Dias
Manuel Akanji
Nathan Ake
John Stones
Josko Gvardiol
Josh Wilson-Esbrand
Rico Lewis
Joao Cancelo
Yan Couto
Kyle Walker
Issa Kabore

Couto looks certain to leave and Cancelo is unwanted, which leaves, in essence, a block of centre-backs that can also play full-back. Absolutely ideal for Guardiola’s new system of 4 centre-backs playing as a back 2 with an inverted pair in front. It is a solution to the problem of Pep’s inability to recruit full-backs, which has become the new template for every team to play in order to get ‘control’. But it often just leaves a team open to long, raking passes to widemen operating in the spaces that a full-back would normally occupy. Playing 4 centre-backs who are comfortable operating at full-back is the best solution to the problem, but it really is just a problem of Guardiola’s own making that is now being copied by everyone else, even though they do not suffer the same issue. It gives City a nice advantage that everyone else wants to be like Pep, as he can spend more than anyone else to ensure his team does it better than the rest. His one worry must be Walker, who is showing signs that even his pace is no longer enough to make up for his inability to defend and he lacks the intelligence to figure out how to compensate for…