by Still, at least Manchester City can now focus on the Ballon d’Or. There was a lavish celebration for the world’s best player before this match: the word RODRI lit up in giant letters on the pitch like a Vegas cabaret show, City’s injured midfield kingpin holding his trophy in air as fireworks lit up the night sky. The tailoring was impeccable; the impressive audiovisuals; the delighted crowd.
And then came a football match, in which the champions were beaten 4-0 by a team with Radu Dragusin and Ben Davies in the center half. It was City’s biggest home defeat in more than two decades: the kind of result that provokes little involuntary jolts, that has spectators whipping out their phones and zooming in on the scoreboard, capturing for posterity this curious tear in the spatio-temporal fabric.
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But it wasn’t a shock. At least, not for anyone vaguely familiar with City football in recent weeks. A fifth consecutive defeat – six if you count the Premier League’s vote on associated party transactions on Friday – is of less significance than the recurring manner of these losses: City were not defeated by chance or fluke , but by teams who were simply more courageous than them, stronger, more imaginative, more united.
And yes, City continues to progress on the counterattack. But just as relevant as the counterattack is what comes before and after: the limp and uncoordinated efforts to recover the ball, the reluctant and mechanical returns to position, the second and third runners who are not recovered, the 50- 50 which are not won. . These are not questions of tactics or form but of physical and mental conditioning.
It’s not simply a Rodri problem either, brilliant as he was, as the gaps were gaping in midfield here as Tottenham flooded in with numbers. The unease here is collective: witness the first goal, where a pumped-up Ilkay Gündogan simply lets James Maddison go, delegating what should have been his job with an urgent outstretched arm that no one sees. But Josko Gvardiol also lets Dejan Kulusevski cut inside, the central defenders fail to space properly and there is not enough pressure on the ball initially.
The common theme here: everyone is counting on someone else to bail them out. There is a sense of avoided responsibility here, of leaving the extra yard to others. Again with the second goal in the 20th minute, Gvardiol with the loose pass to Gündogan, no one covering Maddison’s reverse run. Again with the third, Kulusevski simply ignoring Phil Foden, City players colliding like Minions, Spurs tearing up the pitch and scoring again.
No championship team should ever be so dependent on one man. Pep Guardiola has found solutions in the past and will no doubt find them again. But for now, he needs his players to step up. Since his sparkling start to the season, Erling Haaland has scored two goals in his last seven league matches, with an xG of 7.8. In short, he finishes basically as well as you would with his chances right now.
What this means, however, remains anyone’s guess. Is this an implosion? The end of an era? Or, basically, the characteristic autumn episode of a team which is still second in the championship and which will probably still win the title with a five-point lead? In short, are We those who think about it too much?
Maybe. Certainly, Guardiola was in an optimistic mood after that match, assuring us that this group of players were still champion footballers, that they still had everything they needed to turn things around. But while this run of results is unprecedented, there have been enough omens – Wolves, Fulham, Inter, Arsenal – to suggest this is a trend rather than an anomaly.
Guardiola talks a lot about his trophies these days. Rarely does he miss an opportunity to boast about what this team has accomplished, to celebrate and rejoice in its dominance. And, you know, that’s fair enough. But it is perhaps also the mark of a regime increasingly concerned with projection, with the way things appear and are represented.
The timing of his new contract announcement, which frankly could have happened any time between now and May. The legal battle with the Premier League, the furious briefings, the litany of documentaries and content, a Ballon d’Or celebration just before a key league match. Of course, a little aura and pride is not a bad thing. But it has to be linked to the fundamentals.
Currently, these fundamentals are missing. What remains is a club run by vibes and past glories, a team that fundamentally seems a little drunk at the moment on its own imperial greatness. Maybe it’s not yet time to light things up and start all over again. But it’s worth at least wondering if this team has anything new to show us.
