No team in world football is reeling as badly as Manchester City right now, and their run of five consecutive losses is made all the more stunning by virtue of their sheer dominance in the Premier League over the last four seasons.
Since Liverpool’s remarkable 2019/20 campaign, Man City have been impervious in the English top flight – that is, of course, until the 2024/25 season when they suddenly seem vulnerable.
Without Rodri, whose biggest claim to the Ballon d’Or has now been revealed after he already won the honor, Manchester City look listless. They are a second rate side in comparison to Liverpool, and their recent 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Tottenham marks a new low – and their second straight defeat to Spurs within a span of 30 days.
Manchester City gave up four goals to Viktor Gyokeres and Sporting CP. And now Pep Guardiola’s once perfect structure has been torn to shreds to the tune of four goals conceded again.
Let’s take a closer look at three major reasons behind City’s struggles since the transition into November.
Kyle Walker’s abrupt decline
The signs of Kyle Walker’s fall from grace began to emerge at the Euros, where Nico Williams tore the aging Manchester City right back to shreds during Spain’s triumph over England in the Final.
Throughout the tournament, Walker looked more like a weak link than the right back who had previously held Vinicius Junior in check during the Champions League knockout stages – quite literally the most difficult defensive task in world football today.
Walker was remarkably poor, even by his suddenly mediocre standards, in the defeat to Tottenham, with Timo Werner and anyone else on the Spurs attack having an easy day breezing by a man who was once among the fastest players in the world.
Once the owner of a peak speed of over 37 kph, Walker has now lost nearly 10 kph in the 2024/25 season at the age of 34, and his presence at the right back position has become untenable.
In fact, no player on Manchester City has a lower WhoScored rating than Walker, whose ineptitude is beginning to spiral even further beyond the Ashley Young territory at fullback, which should leave City no choice but to permanently bar the former England international from the XI entirely.
A midfield in need of an overhaul
Obviously Rodri’s absence looms large, but that still leaves the current crop of Manchester City midfielders no excuse for their woeful displays, with only Mateo Kovacic and Kevin De Bruyne distinguishing themselves positively in any way.
And even the praise of KDB has to come with an asterisk, because for as brilliant as he remains as a playmaker with three key passes per game, injuries and age are clearly taking their toll on the Belgian.
De Bruyne’s technical prowess has obviously not declined, but the impact of his passing in the final third isn’t as pronounced. Worse yet, whereas De Bruyne was borderline elite and very underrated in a box-to-box sense as a progressor and even ball-winner, those traits have almost entirely dissipated in 2024.
A shell of his former self, De Bruyne looks more like a James Ward-Prowse clone this season than a legitimate contender for the Premier League Player of the Season, which was his standard just a few years ago.
Elsewhere, Ilkay Gundogan looks like a tragically poor decision by Pep Guardiola, whereas Barcelona are miles better without a player who slows down the game, gets overrun defensively, and genuinely looks like he should be closer to retirement than KDB – because at least De Bruyne can create a high enough volume of chances.
Manchester City were too fixated on veterans and lacked any sort of proactivity in their midfield, instead choosing to allow Rodri to paper over the cracks while willfully ignoring a grave lack of intensity around him.
Erling Haaland is no Rodri
Few would have predicted that when Erling Haaland signed with Manchester City in 2022, a defensive midfielder would beat the Norwegian sensation to become City’s first Ballon d’Or winner.
Although I was one of the individuals who felt Jude Bellingham or Vinicius Junior were stronger Ballon d’Or candidates last season, any argument I held has quite obviously withered away into the carcass of a crow that I must choke down because, goodness, Manchester City look shocking at times without Rodri’s presence.
Haaland has been Man City’s best player this season with 12 goals in 12 games, but it almost feels like he’s the best player by necessity because the entire team is set up for him – and only him – to score goals.
It is, quite frankly, a destructive setup reminiscent of a 90’s or 00’s NBA team wherein there is one player who averages 30 points per game and the rest of the team is left standing dumbfounded to stroke the ego of one man’s statistical efforts while the entire unit mires in mediocrity.
Haaland has the goals, but he literally has nothing else, and while he was an underrated creator at Dortmund and in his first season at the Etihad, he has zero assists this campaign with a measly 0.6 key passes and 0.5 dribbles completed per game.
He has become what the critics falsely branded him as, but it’s not because he can’t be anything more than a poacher, it’s because he has to be otherwise nobody else would score.
Even then, you could argue that Harry Kane, Robert Lewandowski, and all the other great strikers with whom Haaland is compared to have been able to balance being the primary scorer with creating at least something, even on disappointing teams.
Haaland isn’t doing that, and while he is undoubtedly a wonderful striker, his claim as the world’s best has to be called into question. Furthermore, the difference between Haaland and Rodri has become obvious, because whereas Rodri can elevate a team in a variety of ways, Haaland cannot. He has become stuck.
