Manchester City: trouble in paradise?

By Urban Newton (@urban_newton)

Defending is a collective effort. Too often we compare and contrast individuals that are tasked with stopping opponents from scoring.

Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk and Manchester United’s Harry Maguire, for instance, are constantly lauded for their individual ability. They have supposedly single-handedly improved their respective side’s back four.

Manchester City yesterday evening were missing Aymeric Laporte- an outstanding individual defender- but it is far too simple to say that City’s shortcomings at the hands of a shock defeat away to Norwich City were due to the 25-year-old Frenchman’s absence.

Look at the collective defensive effort of the City side yesterday and you will find faults that were not simply down to just Laporte missing.

Rodri, fielded in the holding role that Fernandinho has made his own for years at the Etihad, showed that he certainly is not a direct replacement for the ageing Brazilian.

He lacked the positional discipline, too often wanting to move further upfield and get involved in plays in the final third.

Manager Pep Guardiola has often deployed another midfielder alongside Rodri this season, clearly in the knowledge that he will often stray at times. But there was no such partner last night. The back four were often isolated, giving Norwich the freedom to counter attack a lot if they so wished.

Ilkay Gundogan played like a man who is not often given starts in a role where he is less restricted. As one of the more forward-thinking midfielders, he was just not in the game at all. Confused, delusion, he looked like he was not told what his role was supposed to be.

As has been common in the Premier League, you could even say across Europe, at the start of the season, the art of defending seems to have gone completely out of the window.

Norwich were expected to take the game to City, just as they had to Liverpool on the opening day at Anfield, and they did so magnificently. They got the balance right of when to press high and hassle the City defence and when to sit back.

The gap between the Norwich midfield and defence, the line that City so often play between and through, was simply not there, hence why the City goals came from a cross and a hit-and-hope.

Yes Norwich are a very, very good footballing side too. But come on, this is Manchester City we are talking about. The side that is supposed to be winning not only the league but the Champions League as well.

The full-backs were far too often out of position and they just could not hold a line at all. Far too many times did Norwich get runners in behind, with the odd City defender desperately, hopelessly, flailing an arm up in the hope that the assistant referee will be convinced of offside.

Manchester City were nothing short of torn apart yesterday evening. Daniel Farke’s side were immense, showing that the Liverpool game in August unluckily came too early for them.

Obviously, City missed Aymeric Laporte, with John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi appearing like they have never even met never mind played at the heart of a title-winning team before.

Though Liverpool have also looked just as defensively poor at this stage of the season, the Reds of Merseyside have already opened up a 5-point gap at the top of the Premier League table.

It is the biggest lead a side has had after five games and shows that City will have to put in a much better defensive collective effort this season, even beyond Laporte’s return in the new year.

By Urban Newton (@urban_newton)