{"id":299576,"date":"2023-12-07T23:24:36","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T23:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports-life-news.com\/?p=299576"},"modified":"2023-12-07T23:24:36","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T23:24:36","slug":"jack-gaughan-manchester-city-have-gone-from-control-to-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports-life-news.com\/soccer\/jack-gaughan-manchester-city-have-gone-from-control-to-chaos\/","title":{"rendered":"JACK GAUGHAN: Manchester City have gone from control to chaos"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1> JACK GAUGHAN: Since the departure of midfield genius Ilkay Gundogan, Manchester City have gone from control to chaos &#8211; and robbed Pep Guardiola of his beloved &#8216;pausa&#8217;<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Since the ex-captain&#8217;s summer move, Man City have struggled to dictate play\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>New signings Nunes and Kovacic could yet step up but need Guardiola&#8217;s trust\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Man City have dipped, but Gary Neville is WRONG to say they\u2019re complacent &#8211; Listen to It&#8217;s All Kicking Off<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Remember when Manchester City were boring? When punters could not bear to watch them. All so predictable: the games and the results. Pass the remote.<\/p>\n<p>How City\u2019s fans, and Pep Guardiola, yearn for the days when their winning style of football drew groans. A style of football that depends on control, on slowly strangling the opposition by keeping and moving the ball.<\/p>\n<p>But 15 games into their third consecutive title defence, only Premier League games involving Aston Villa and Brighton have yielded more goals than City\u2019s 53. It\u2019s been chaos this season \u2014 and not always the organised sort.<\/p>\n<p>The six-point gap to leaders Arsenal will not bother Guardiola so much. They\u2019ve come from behind before and there is always a belief they will build a winning run that takes the title. There is no reason why that cannot happen again, but Guardiola will have to plan the assault in a different way.<\/p>\n<p>This season the team is made up of direct wingers such as Jeremy Doku and boundless runners from midfield like Julian Alvarez \u2014 which has left the defence exposed on occasion.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/07\/19\/78707273-12839039-image-a-10_1701978206127.jpg\" height=\"411\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Man City&#8217;s style this season showcases direct wingers such as new recruit Jeremy Doku<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/07\/23\/78707291-12839039-Striker_Erling_Haaland_has_been_forced_deeper_into_midfield_to_v-a-17_1701990467729.jpg\" height=\"440\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Striker Erling Haaland has been forced deeper into midfield to varying degrees of success<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/07\/23\/78715911-12839039-image-m-24_1701990551220.jpg\" height=\"484\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Pep Guardiola is finding life after Ilkay Gundogan (pictured) difficult to adjust to this season<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>Ilkay Gundogan\u2019s departure, a freebie to Barcelona, is the biggest change City are having to adapt to. He was captain, scorer of historic goals, but also the one man who truly got Guardiola and the skill of pausa: how to dictate matches. He rarely lost the ball and knew exactly when to quicken or slow proceedings down.<\/p>\n<p>The one player available during the defeat at Villa who could do that job, Bernardo Silva, was shunted to the right wing given absentees elsewhere. It left City with two centre halves (Manuel Akanji and John Stones), a teenage full back (Rico Lewis) and a striker (Alvarez) in midfield.<\/p>\n<p>The subsequent lack of control meant Erling Haaland dropped deeper to get on the ball. He had just two touches in the Villa box as a result (compared to nine in the same fixture last season, when he scored). And the striker\u2019s average position was in his own half on Wednesday night, compared to three-quarters of the way up the pitch last season.<\/p>\n<p>In that fixture Gundogan pulled the strings \u2014 alongside Rodri and Kevin De Bruyne, both of whom were absent at Villa Park on Wednesday \u2014 and fed the ball up to Haaland.<\/p>\n<p>Gundogan is a midfield genius and there was real frustration around City that they didn\u2019t convince him to stay \u2014 even if the German\u2019s injury record was a worry. When you add the departure of Riyad Mahrez, another adept at taking a step back to choose his moments, and look at the profile of player to arrive, City are in a transitional phase.<\/p>\n<p>Alvarez, for example, always wants to go forward quickly, understandable given he is a natural attacker. Doku the same. Some of the control has been lost. Against Villa on Wednesday, City had 54 per cent of the ball. Last season at Villa Park, they had 72 per cent. \u2018There were a lot of duels where if we had won the ball, we would have had a good attack, and if they had won the ball they would have had a good attack,\u2019 Akanji said. \u2018They won 90 per cent of these duels. The other games weren\u2019t like this.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/07\/23\/78706747-12839039-On_Wednesday_against_Villa_Erling_Haaland_s_average_position_was-a-19_1701990467730.jpg\" height=\"411\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday against Villa, Erling Haaland&#8217;s average position was in his own half as he went looking for the ball due to City&#8217;s relative lack of possession<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/07\/23\/78706745-12839039-Last_season_at_Villa_he_played_much_higher_up_as_Gundogan_De_Bru-a-20_1701990467731.jpg\" height=\"417\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Last season at Villa he played much higher up as Gundogan, De Bruyne, and Rodri controlled the game<\/p>\n<p>\u2018We had control against Tottenham, against Liverpool, we should have won. Against Villa we shouldn\u2019t have.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>With those words, Akanji \u2014 whose own take on the Stones role is not really working \u2014 nailed it. Villa wasn\u2019t the same, Villa was a 1-0 battering, the sort of damage City usually inflict on others.<\/p>\n<p>Guardiola took the blame. \u2018It\u2019s my duty, my job to find a way to (retrieve) the situation,\u2019 he said. \u2018We have to change the dynamic. We have to reflect what we have to do with the players that we have.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>After a lengthy, engaging and passionate defence of his players on Tuesday \u2014 only this man, at this club, has to defend his squad after three draws against decent opposition \u2014 Guardiola hit upon the crux of the matter. He said that the core of this team had changed, effectively that the reliable pausa merchants had gone, exchanged for hard runners. And he has to find a way of making that sing.<\/p>\n<p>The summer signings, Mateo Kovacic and Matheus Nunes, could both yet work. There is no way of making any definitive assessment on either given their lack of game time.<\/p>\n<p>Kalvin Phillips is clearly not going to make it at City. He remained an unused substitute against Villa. But Kovacic and Nunes are so far removed from how Gundogan plays that it is going to take time for them to settle into the team.<\/p>\n<p>Neither has Guardiola\u2019s trust yet and both have suffered injuries. They would be given more time if City were taking their chances; Haaland was guilty of missing good opportunities against Tottenham and Villa.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/07\/23\/78707375-12839039-Summer_signing_Mateo_Kovacic_could_yet_provide_some_balance_but_-a-21_1701990467731.jpg\" height=\"424\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Summer signing Mateo Kovacic could yet provide some balance but is yet to gain trust needed<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/07\/23\/78716055-12839039-image-a-25_1701990592174.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Kevin De Bruyne is much missed this season, but he alone can&#8217;t fix the issue when he returns from injury<\/p>\n<p>But blaming Haaland is churlish: he is the Premier League\u2019s top scorer and has five goals in his last six games.<\/p>\n<p>And although he is top of the Premier League list in terms of \u2018big chances missed\u2019, that is because he gets lots of \u2018big chances\u2019. Feed him and he will score enough.<\/p>\n<p>That is where De Bruyne is missed. He regularly assisted Haaland and will do so again when he returns. But he alone does not completely fix things and restore that pausa Guardiola craves.<\/p>\n<p>The manager might have to unearth another tactical masterclass if City are to make history with a fourth title on the spin.<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off\u00a0is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football, launching with a preview show today and every week this season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube , Apple Music and Spotify<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2017\/08\/02\/636x90_facebook_ad_sport.png\" width=\"636\" height=\"90\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12839039\/Ilkay-Gundogan-Manchester-City-control-chaos-Pep-Guardiola-pausa.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JACK GAUGHAN: Since the departure of midfield genius Ilkay Gundogan, Manchester City have gone from control to chaos &#8211; and robbed Pep Guardiola of his beloved &#8216;pausa&#8217; Since the ex-captain&#8217;s summer move, Man City have struggled to dictate play\u00a0 New signings Nunes&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>JACK GAUGHAN: Manchester City have gone from control to chaos - Sports-Life-News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sports-life-news.com\/soccer\/jack-gaughan-manchester-city-have-gone-from-control-to-chaos\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"JACK GAUGHAN: Manchester City have gone from control to chaos - Sports-Life-News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"JACK GAUGHAN: Since the departure of midfield genius Ilkay Gundogan, Manchester City have gone from control to chaos &#8211; 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