Soliloquy

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We are eight games into the 2019/20 Premier League season and it already looks like the title race is over. Last season’s finalists (as our American friends would like to call them) Manchester City and Liverpool looked hot favourites to contest for the title again this year but the Reds from Merseyside have had a stunning run comprising eight wins whereas Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City have already gone through a draw with Tottenham and suffered two unlikely defeats from the hands of Norwich City and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The gap between the two sides is a massive eight points and unless Jurgen Klopp’s side drop points constantly, it’s highly unlikely of Manchester City climbing to the top of the table. Despite this, in today’s article, we pick out three ways in which the blue side from Manchester can get their Premier League campaign back on track.

1) Embrace fearlessness

The Manchester City that won an unprecedented domestic treble (the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup) in the 2018/19 season is not the Manchester City that has taken the field and disappointed repeatedly in the 2019/20 season. Manager Pep Guardiola’s men have looked fearful of pushing hard and have constantly sat on their laurels.

Although players like Raheem Sterling and Kevin de Bruyne have been brilliant performers for the side and a few of the others have gelled well to provide attacking returns as well but somehow overall domination has eluded them. The blue side from Manchester need to pull up their socks if they have to get back in the title race and stop Liverpool from running away with the Premier League.

2) Prevent constant tinkering with the starting eleven

Manchester City’s manager Pep Guardiola is famous for his rotation tactics by which he constantly tinkers with the starting eleven. Although this worked well for the Spaniard in the past, it is proving to be harmful to his team’s cause presently. Compared to Liverpool, Manchester City make more than one change on average to their starting eleven every Premier League matchday.

The team’s participation in the UEFA Champions League is to blame a little as the players are knackered after performing at highly intense levels midweek and cannot be expected to be fit for the weekend fixtures of the Premier League. However, constant tinkering with the starting eleven reduces the dynamics of the team and prevents the players from expressing themselves completely. The players do not learn to trust each other and are constantly afraid of being dropped from the team.

3) Play Benjamin Mendy more regularly when fit

Injury-prone left-back Benjamin Mendy adds an extra dimension of pace and teeth to Manchester City’s wings whenever he plays. However, the Frenchman has managed to play only three games this season (in one of which he lasted only 45 minutes and in the other thirty) and City’s problems at left-back have looked more pronounced since he has been out.

The former AS Monaco star is extremely fast on the wings and can cross the ball with deadly accuracy: two of the main reasons why Guardiola spent 50m Pounds on him two years ago. Oleksandr Zinchenko has looked at home in the left-back position in Mendy’s absence but his defensive skills are questionable and new signing Joao Cancelo, who started against Wolverhampton Wanderers, looked clearly out of place from his preferred right-back spot.

As soon as Mendy gets fit, City must rush him and make him dictate the pace from the back. They have missed him dearly.