Alex Keble looks at how Pep Guardiola could resolve Manchester City's problems following a fifth consecutive defeat in all competitions.
The 4-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur marks a turning point in Manchester City’s season.
We are in uncharted waters. Not since 1956 has a reigning top-flight champion lost five matches in a row in all competitions. Pep Guardiola has never lost so many consecutively.
Rodri’s absence is, of course, a huge factor, but the problems run deeper than that and with another nine matches to play before the transfer window opens, Guardiola needs to find tactical solutions if he is to save their season.
"We are a bit fragile at the moment," Guardiola admitted after the Spurs loss.
"We have to accept the reality and break it."
With that in mind, here are five tactical changes Guardiola could consider.
"Our game was about control," Guardiola said after the defeat to Spurs, thinking back to better days. “This is not a team created to do box to box 40 times in a game - we are not good at that.”
All five points made here will be in reference to that fundamental Guardiola principle: control.
The idea has always been to slow the match down, move in a rigidly structured shape up the pitch, and suffocate the opposition.
Of late, City are letting matches become “box to box”, losing their grip on contests by failing to counter-press and stop the fast breaks.
Shots faced per match on counter under Guardiola
Season Total 2020/21 0.3 2021/22 0.4 2022/23 0.7 2023/24 0.5 2024/25 1.2
Rodri’s return would probably fix it but that won’t happen for a long time, so Guardiola needs to rethink the No 6 role.
Ilkay Gundogan and Mateo Kovacic have both been tried here but neither has the legs, the anticipation, nor the tactical experience to snuff out danger.
Manuel Akanji, on the other hand, has all of these instincts and could offer the power and aggression required to wrest back control, although Guardiola hasn’t trusted him in this position since a wild 3-3 draw against Spurs in December 2023.
But if Guardiola was to start Akanji as a No 6, instead of asking him to step out from centre-back when City have the ball, things might be different.
Man City’s problems defending counters aren’t all about personnel.
City’s pressing game has dropped off, particularly when it comes to counter pressing: the name given to swarming the opposition in the seconds after possession is lost.
Man City are top of the charts for pressed sequences with 178 but are bottom of the Premier League for pressures resulting in a turnover (211) and bottom for counter pressures (512).
Interestingly, they are third for counter pressures in the final third (294) but rock bottom, again, for those in the middle third (183), suggesting – unsurprisingly – the issue is about pressing in central midfield.
Where Man City's press ranks 24/25
Total PL rank Pressed sequences 178 1st Pressures resulting in turnover 211 20th Counter pressures 512 20th Counter pressures in final third 294 3rd Counter pressures in middle third 183 20th
The fix here isn’t easy, especially with an ageing squad (nine of the 14 players used against Spurs were 29 or older), but Man City haven’t been a particularly hard-pressing side for a while now, as their PPDA (passes per defensive action which measures the success of their pressing) data shows and it might be time to change that.
Where Man City's PPDA ranks 24/25
PPDA PL rank 2022/23 11.6 7th 2023/24 12.0 9th 2024/25 11.7 7th
Guardiola's teams of old pressed furiously in every third. Returning to that style would help shut down counter-attacks at source, stopping fast breaks before they even begin.
As a knock-on effect, it would increase Man City’s possession and territorial dominance; in other words, their control of proceedings.
We've covered the defensive side of things so far, but the attack needs arguably just as much work, not least because improving the rhythms of their final third play would again help City pin teams back. This would create the sort of dominance that helps keep the ball away from their goal.
One obvious issue is creativity in the wide areas, which arguably reached a new low in the defeat to Spurs.
Guardiola has developed a habit of instructing his wingers to move very far inside in support of Erling Haaland and on Saturday, that meant leaving Kyle Walker and Josko Gvardiol (circled below) to hold all the width.
It spoke to Guardiola’s keenness to solve a developing concern around where to place his wingers and who to pick; Man City have used three different pairs of wingers across the five defeats and no combination has worked.
Injuries have played a part but City’s wingers have been ineffective this season for tactical reasons, either looking isolated when out wide or crowded out when instructed to sit behind Haaland.
As a consequence, few City goals this season have been created down the wings.
Circle: shot; star: goal; green line: pass; coloured stars: xA value
A potential fix is to go back in time. Guardiola needs to revert to classic out-and-out wingers – and give them the right support from midfield.
At their peak, Man City would score lots of goals via wingers driving to the byline and exchanging passes to create a cut-back opportunity. These have all but disappeared.
Two of Savinho, Jeremy Doku and Jack Grealish ought to be playing every match and holding the width, with the No 8s - freed by Akanji playing behind - making underlapping runs in support.
Grealish, in particular, can be helpful here. His ability to slow things right down and draw the foul can help keep City in control – there’s that word again – and give Gundogan time to run beyond him and open up the wings.
Speaking of width, Man City need a major rethink at right-back.
Over the last couple of seasons, Guardiola has sold his most creative full-backs and replaced them with central defenders, but after five consecutive defeats, it is time to backtrack.
Fortunately there is no problem on the left. Gvardiol is the team’s second-highest Premier League scorer (three goals), ranks third among Man City players for chances created (18) and ranks first – by a distance – for progressive passes (113).
How Gvardiol's attacking stats rank in Man City squad
Gvardiol - PL 24/25 Total Man City rank Goals 3 2nd Chances created 18 3rd Progressive passes 113 1st
But at right-back, Kyle Walker struggled to make an attacking impact against Spurs despite finding lots of space in the final third, while Rico Lewis is almost exclusively deployed as a central midfielder when starting in that role.
If Guardiola was to normalise the right-back position by playing Lewis in a traditional role, it could help Man City creatively. It would declutter the middle while also providing an aggressive outlet for diagonal switches and aiding the return of classic Pep wingers.
Then again, perhaps creativity on the right – and left - will return automatically as Kevin De Bruyne reaches full fitness.
Should all else fail, there’s an emergency option worth attention.
Haaland is a goal machine but his style of play goes against the grain and it could be argued his static presence is preventing Man City from retaining possession and moving gracefully through the third. Yes, it's preventing control.
He averages just 19.8 touches per match, something we’ve got used to but a figure that remains an extraordinary counterpoint to Guardiola possession.
Maybe a false nine like Phil Foden would, in the short term, help City remember how to play their aesthetic possession game.
It would also force others to raise their performance level and rediscover the attacking patterns mentioned above, because there is something mildly alarming about Haaland’s 12 Premier League goals accounting for 55 per cent of the team’s total.
That reliance becomes a problem when he stops scoring and indeed since late September, Haaland has scored just two goals from an Expected Goals (xG) of 6.0.
Replacing Haaland, for the time being, could also help City’s counter pressing and out-of-possession problems, given that he ranks 27th among Premier League strikers for pressures per 90 (22.3).
It’s the nuclear option, but one that makes sense in the wider context of Man City stripping the layers away and going back to what they used to do best: press hard, suffocate with possession, and take control.
