After 13 Premier League Matchdays in the 2024/25 season, Manchester City aren’t just 11 points behind league leaders Liverpool after losing to the Reds convincingly on Sunday, 2-0.
No, the Citizens are also now at risk of missing out on the Champions League, as they are fifth, behind Brighton on goal difference (+5 vs. +3). Rodri’s season-ending injury looms large, but his absence alone – nor any other injuries – can excuse just how lackluster Man City have looked in recent weeks.
A 2-0 loss to Liverpool compounds several poor performances suffered by the Citizens, who are winless since eeking out a 1-0 victory over Southampton on Oct. 26. They couldn’t even take down Sporting CP and Feyenoord in the Champions League.
Already, the atmosphere around Manchester City has turned to “rebuild”, and two years after getting the massive gorilla off his back by winning his first treble without Lionel Messi, Pep Guardiola is about to embark on a much more difficult journey.
Like Jurgen Klopp did at Liverpool, Guardiola must dig himself out of a hole and rebuild the Manchester City squad into a Premier League champion, because the 2024/25 season is starting to look like a lost cause when it comes to title gold.
Let’s take a look at how Manchester City could try to retool their squad for the 2025/26 season.
GK Stefan Ortega
Ederson has been a loyal servant to Manchester City over the years and one of the better goalkeepers in the world, suiting Manchester City with his trademark style of sweeping and taking calculated risks on the ball.
But in recent seasons, Ederson’s actual shot-stopping has been arguably below average. In the past four seasons, Ederson has exceeded a save percentage of 70 just once, and he is currently on his second season with a mark below 63.
Stefan Ortega, meanwhile, has a save percentage of 81.6 in the Premier League when starting for Manchester City, and he was previously one of the best goalkeepers in the Bundesliga, which is why Guardiola fought to sign him over Bayern Munich.
It’s time for Manchester City to make a change in goal. Ortega is good enough on the ball to have piqued Guardiola’s interest in signing him, and even Pep has to acknowledge that the primary responsibility of a goalkeeper is to save the ball.
Ortega has been statistically far beyond Ederson in goal over the past couple of seasons. Instead of going out and spending money on a new keeper, it would make more sense for City to turn to Ortega first.
LB Josko Gvardiol
Josko Gvardiol could kick back inside at center back, but his high-risk, high-reward playings style suits the left back position better, where he can come up the pitch and use his athleticism or invert and show off his technical quality.
Because of his penchant for horrible mistakes, Gvardiol is always liable to being overrated by virtue of the stellar highlights and jaw-dropping athletic gifts, but I don’t really see a left back worth investing in from Man City’s standpoint.
Theo Hernandez has the same mistakes in him defensively, inverting Achraf Hakimi doesn’t seem to be the wisest way of utilizing his monster progression, and Alphonso Davies doesn’t have the technical quality to start for Manchester City.
CB Alessandro Bastoni
It makes more sense for Manchester City to sign a young center back who is proven at the highest level of football, passes at an elite level, creates chances, and defends assuredly.
Inter Milan have a deep pool of solid defenders, but there’s little doubt that Bastoni is the best of them. It is funny looking back at the 2023/24 season and seeing how much hype Riccardo Calafiori received for his breakout campaign, especially after the Euros, when Bastoni was probably still the better center back overall.
Bastoni seems tailor-made for Manchester City and Guardiola. He is completing around 92 percent of his passes this season, and, at 25, is still scratching the surface on the player he can become.
CB Ruben Dias
Manchester City can’t overhaul every position in their starting lineup, nor do they need to, and three to five new signings in the summer 2025 transfer window could be all that is necessary for the Citizens to get back to their status as the best team in the Premier League.
So sticking with Ruben Dias as a starter makes the most sense. The Portuguese international is a former Premier League Player of the Season and one of the best big-game center backs you’ll find in the Champions League or Premiership.
Dias has been the only starter on the Manchester City defense worth praising, as he’s averaged an interception per game with just 0.1 dribbles allowed per contest. In theory, the 27-year-old should be better than ever at this age, entering the peak of his career as a center back.
RB Achraf Hakimi
Manchester City were linked to Achraf Hakimi last year, and they should go harder after him next summer since it’s painfully obvious that Kyle Walker’s best days are behind him.
Nobody is replacing what peak Walker brought to the table defensively, as even just a couple of years ago, he was capable of matching Vinicius Junior and shutting down the best pure winger in the world one-on-one with his guile and speed.
That speed has left Walker, who was roasted alive by Nico Williams at the Euros for all the world to see, and that should have been Man City’s first sign that the 34-year-old was going to be a liability in the starting lineup next season.
Manchester City might as well double down and go for someone who can attack at an elite level and add a new layer to the Manchester City attack, rather than trying to sign a lockdown defender at right back who will hamstring the team’s attacking efforts.
Hakimi is a versatile weapon who is a proven winner. He can elevate his teammates and is one of the best on the planet at creating opportunities for others by overlapping out wide, putting in teasing low crosses, carrying the ball tirelessly up the pitch, and even underlapping to interchange with the striker and winger.
He has been a regular starter at the Champions League level for seven seasons now but is still only 26, which is a rare pedigree of experience at the fullback position. And with 6 goal contributions and nearly 3 key passes per game this season, the PSG superstar is quietly as brilliant as ever.
DM Rodri
Rodri has a starting spot engraved in the Manchester City lineup when he returns, and no amount of praise or regurgitation of mind-boggling statistics will do justice to what has become clear this season: the Citizens are substantially worse without Rodri.
AM Phil Foden
The 2023/24 Premier League Player of the Season, Phil Foden is a versatile, jack-of-all-trades player who has indeed mastered a few of those traits and become the perfect utility attacker for Pep Guardiola.
Foden scores, assists, progresses play, defends, and holds positions in whichever role asked of him. He’s an easy target for criticism from fans outside of Manchester because he doesn’t have he gaudiest statistics, but the way he helps piece together a top team into a perennial contender is very much appreciated at the Etihad.
No matter where it is, Foden has a role as a regular starter for Manchester City in 2025/26 and beyond. Even though he’s not having his best campaign in 2024/25, that shouldn’t overshadow the quality the 24-year-old has.
AM Florian Wirtz
Yet Manchester City need to add another attacking midfielder to the mix and replace both Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkgay Gunodgan, who cannot be relied upon at the top level.
Although Gundogan was great for Barcelona last season, he’s looked past it in 2024/25 in his return to Manchester City, and the Premier League has begun to pass the 34-year-old German icon by.
De Bruyne is a more difficult case, and while he should stay on as a veteran playmaker – even as a 6 instead of a 10 – the reality is that Manchester City cannot rely on an injury-prone 33-year-old who is becoming increasingly one-dimensional as an every-game starter.
What Man City need to do is make a serious push to sign Florian Wirtz, who has the explosiveness, goal-scoring touch, and intelligence to replace KDB in the modern game and be his own man as the 10 with the keys to the Manchester City attack.
Erling Haaland needs a 10 who can bomb up the pitch with him and feed him chances. Wirtz is a sensation with the ball at his feet, and, for Man City, he would be worth any price.
LW Bradley Barcola
Jeremy Doku is a dynamic dribbler and deserves a regular spot in the rotation, but he doesn’t seem to have the end product necessary to consistently start for Manchester City.
The Citizens have wingers who are great at beating defenders and making plays, but they really need someone who can function as a secondary goal-scorer to take pressure off Erling Haaland.
Manchester City don’t have to go out and spend 100 million euros on Rafael Leao or Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, and because they already have a few talented wingers, they can afford to take a gamble on another U23 talent.
Bradley Barcola already has 10 goals for PSG in Ligue 1 and is sneakily putting up Kylian Mbappe-esque numbers for the French giants. He may end up being similarly priced to the Serie A superstars or only marginally less expensive, but the 22-year-old has arguably more goal-scoring upside.
Manchester City should replace Jack Grealish with Barcola next summer and not think twice about it.
RW Savinho
Savinho has no goals and two assists in the Premier League this season, but you can tell the former Girona superstar is starting to get more dangerous in the final third; more assists and even goals should be coming soon.
The 20-year-old Brazilian has been much better than the assist totals indicate, as he is averaging 2.0 key passes per game to go with 2.5 dribbles completed per match as one of the better wide playmakers in the Premier League.
ST Erling Haaland
Not much needs to be said about Erling Haaland, who is unequivocally the best pure goal-scorer on the planet with 12 goals in 13 starts despite the fact that Manchester City haven’t been one of the four best teams in the Premier League to this point.
Haaland has become relied upon too much as a scorer, and his other numbers would benefit from a better overall team around him. That’s the key, though, “around him”, because the big Norwegian’s status as City’s centerpiece isn’t changing any time soon.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.