Last season, Manchester City finished second in the Premier League and were 18 points behind the champions Liverpool. The team even tough had the quality, but some hard luck and injuries took their toll on Pep’s team.
Another major reason for their catastrophe last season was their lack of consistency and their unreliable defense . At the end of last season, Pep honestly accepted his team’s weaknesses and their faults and sought to address them as fast as possible.
Yesterday, when the Cityzens faced the wanderers, throughout the game the intent that Pep assured, was seen. But there were also some common errors, which exploited City last season.
Manchester City at present are among some of the biggest clubs in world football. The kind of legacy they have built over the last decade seems like a blessing to world football. They also have some of the best players in the world like De Bruyne, Sterling, Mahrez, etc. and the architect Pep Guardiola, who is one of the best coaches in the world.
Despite all these factors, last season Manchester City had a disappointing season, as they finished 18 points behind the PL champions and also shockingly lost to Lyon in the quarter finals of the UCL.
Last season, the main reason behind this downfall was their defence, who let the team down, when it mattered. Also, the lack of consistency of the team took its toll . But Manchester City were self critic and understood their mistakes from the last season and sought to make a comeback both in England as well as in Europe.
With all the talks and debates ongoing, Manchester City started their new season against Wolves, on the 21st of September at the Molineux. Wolves, were definitely a team to be feared of, as the team had grown really strong under Nuno Espirito Santo and had some of the standout players from the last season, like Raul Jimenez, Adama Traore, Conor Coady and Rui Patricio.
As the game started, Manchester City were playing the ball well and were making constant moves and inside the first quarter of the game succeeded in winning a penalty, when a run made by Kevin De Bruyne for the ball was interupted by Saiss. Kevin De Bruyne, made no mistake in converting it from the spot and making the score line 1-0.
A few minutes later, in the 32nd minute of the game, an absolute masterpiece by the city attack, helped Phil Foden score his first goal of the new season and an really important one for his redemption against the happenings of the last few weeks. Thus the first half ended in with Manchester City taking a 2 goal lead over Wolves.
Later as the second half began, Wolves looked much better after an horrific first half performance. They were making runs, creating chances and thus testing the defense, which once again failed to prove itself as there were at timrs few major casualities with the defense. And these casualities, finally resulted in Wolves scoring in the 78th min after the Manchester City defense went to sleep, leaving Jimenez in lots of free space, who made the most out of this opportunity.
After conceding the goal, the match became very intersting, as now there was only a single goal sperating both the teams. But the City defense somehow held on to the incoming threat for the next few minutes, before Gabriel Jesus’s shot on goal, took a big deflection and hit the back of the net, ending the match 3-1.
Despite the fact that City’s defense was a bit sloppy at times, City’s overall performance was really great and a pleasure to watch. However City should not take their defensive problems lightly and address them quickly, as the former champions Liverpool have already started their season with two wins, City need to keep up pace with them, if they want to compete for the Premier League title this time around.