Thursday, October 27, 2016

Three Point Hunger Continues For Guardiola As United Get Pass City on Wednesday Night

Five games without a win is hardly a crisis for most managers, but Manchester City's current run of form is threatening to become the worst period of Pep Guardiola's time as a manager.

If City fail to win at Old Trafford in the EFL Cup Fourth Round, Guardiola the manager will have gone six games without victory for the first time ever
.

After beginning life at the Etihad with his side absolutely rampant in winning 10 consecutive games and showing no signs of teething problems under their new manager, Pep has drawn three and lost two of his last five matches

A hugely exciting but ultimately disappointing 3-3 draw with Celtic preceded a 2-0 loss at Tottenham and a 1-1 draw at home to Everton.

City were then thrashed 4-0 by Barcelona on Pep's return to the Nou Camp last week, in the joint-heaviest defeat of Guardiola's managerial career, before scraping a 1-1 draw against Southampton at the weekend.

Guardiola has only once before gone five matches without a win, doing so in his first season as Barcelona manager.

Having won 19 of his first 22 games in La Liga, Pep's side drew with Real Betis and were beaten by a certain Mauricio Pochettino's Espanyol. They then lost their next league game, a 4-3 defeat at Atletico Madrid, a result which was sandwiched by draws in the Champions League and Spanish Cup.

However, those two draws in knockout competitions proved inconsequential, with Barcelona winning the other leg in those rounds convincingly, and later going on to win both competitions as Barcelona won the treble.

Pep now faces the biggest challenge of his managerial career, with opposing managers growing wise to the fact that City's defenders have not yet mastered the art of playing out from the back, having conceded a few avoidable goals when put under pressure in defensive areas. The tactical battle at Old Trafford between Pep and Jose Mourinho will be an intriguing one.

John Stones was the latest to gift wrap a goal for City to concede, passing the ball between Vincent Kompany and Claudio Bravo for Nathan Redmond to steal in and put Southampton in front.

No comments:

Post a Comment