Early turnovers show Guardiola’s reconstruction of the city is still in progress | Premier League

tHis really great side always has a halo. One of the elements that makes them so hard to defeat is that beating them seems unimaginable. Even if they encounter bad running, expectation always rediscover their form at some point. To some extent Manchester City I did it last season. Their pain was painful after losing to Nottingham Forest in early March, as they brought together 10 unbeaten games to the end of third place, even beating Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final proved the remaining shortcomings.

That game sometimes shows the flatness of the city Defeat Al-Hilal 4-3 In the Club World Cup. Given how high their line is, Guardiola’s side is always susceptible to the direct ball behind them. This is an inevitable part of the risk rewards of this style.

Even after defeating Wolves 4-0 on the opening weekend, there are signs of potential weakness in this strategy. It was this flaw that led Richarlison to break off the offside trap and open the scoring for Brennan Johnson Spurs in Etihad on Saturday. However, the Spurs’ second goal was equally worrying: goalkeeper James Trafford made an inexplicable pass to Nico González’s foot under pressure from the top of his own box. This is not an execution error, but one of the concepts. If it was a one-off, that might not have been too much focus, but it was very similar to the mistake Burnley made in his final season at Crystal Palace, which led to a red card for Josh Brownhill.

Ederson is the ideal goalkeeper for Guardiola, both good at the traditional aspects of goalkeepers and an outstanding ball. This is perhaps a low-key feature of Guardiola’s success, who was once lucky in the goalkeeper: inheriting Víctor Valdés and Bayern’s Manuel Neuer in Barcelona, ​​and then signing Ederson in the city. While he or the city should be commendable for determining Benfica’s talent, he replaced Joe Hart with Claudio Bravo after his mistake last season.

Although Edson was 32 earlier this month, there was a feeling last season that he was waning. For example, in the first leg of the Champions League knockout, there were two big mistakes, and Guardiola chose Stefan Ortega in certain matches first. Given his high salary and obvious payday desire in Saudi Arabia, Ederson should be close to the exit perhaps not surprised. Surprisingly, the profile of the player who lined up to replace him.

Ederson’s statistics remain strong last season in terms of his death. Despite an average of 5.3 long goals per game, he averaged more than 86% and received four assists. Trafford scored 4.3 goals per game last season in the championship game – at least in theory meant he played a more direct pass – but his pass completion rate was only 70%. exist Premier League The previous season was 62%, despite 6.5 long goals per game.

Manchester City has reportedly reached personal terms with Gianluigi Donnarumma, who surprisingly found himself beyond Luis Enrique’s plans at Paris Saint-Germain. Further negotiations need to be collected, but this seems like a very strange move for the city. Donnarumma is a great shooter who has developed the habit of winning games in the biggest games, but he is not like Ederson’s long-range passes. Although his Ligue 1’s pass completion rate in Ligue 1 last season was 85%, he averaged only 2.6 long balls per game. This may suggest that Guardiola wants to go back to the basics, shorter, and more straightforward styles based on owning – but that goes against his recent football and wider game trends that are less risk-averse, more direct.

In fact, one of the prominent features in the game against Wolves is that City’s midfielder tries to kick the ball forward. Especially Tijjani Reijnders are thriving. His effect on the Spurs was greatly reduced, midfielder harassed him without giving him any space and saw his pass completion rate drop from 88.3% to 81.4%.

Manchester City won only one of their last five games against the Spurs at home, so in that sense, Saturday’s results were no surprise. What it proves, though, is that a team needs to do more than defeat the Wolves to prove that it’s back. Guardiola’s reconstruction of the city is still underway.

On this day…

It was called the Premier League at the time and only scored in the 10-day new match. Eric Cantona On August 25, 1995, when Leeds beat Tottered Tottenham 5-0 on Elland Road, he won three times the win in the Community Shield by Liverpool 4-3 in the Community Shield. Rod Wallace pounced on Erik Thorstvedt’s mistake to score first, Lee Chapman added fifth in Cantona’s layoffs, but it’s all about the French. First, he shoots in the misplaced direction of Justin Edinburgh, then he returns to David Batty’s cross before joining another volley.

But after Watford knocked out the league from the League Cup after he beat Manchester City 4-0 in November, manager Howard Wilkinson beat Candona to Arsenal 3-0. An angry Cantona demands transfer Joined Manchester United soon. Wilkinson seems to have gotten rid of the turbulent players almost feel relieved, but Cantona inspired Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United to win their first league title in 26 years.

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