Man City Season Preview: attacking approach

On the one hand, Manchester City improved by 12 points last season on their 15/16 tally. On the other, they did not seriously challenge for any trophies, as they were widely expected to last August. Was last season progress, failure or something in between? We asked supporter Mike Holden from Foxpunter to find out.

In terms of results, it was undoubtedly a failure – but a necessary failure in order to get to where we want to go. The extent of it didn’t really matter. The team wasn’t good enough to dominate the Premier League and compete with the very best in Europe, so Guardiola needed to get the bottom of the issue and know exactly what he’s dealing with.

He treated the team like a high-performance car because it looks like a high-performance car, but the truth is we’re not the genuine article. Some of his driving was reckless at times, but that’s just Guardiola being Guardiola. He doesn’t do half-measures. He knows what to expect from the players now, and the players know what to expect from him. We should be better for it.

You scored 122 goals in 56 games in all forms last year. Did the pace of Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane play an important role in making you such an exciting side to watch?

Sterling and Sane definitely gave us an extra dimension that we lacked under Manuel Pellegrini, that ability to get in behind defences no matter how deep they sat. It meant no game was ever dull because their runs were so difficult to track with that sudden turn of pace. Sadly, we didn’t convert enough of our chances though. We should have scored a lot more goals.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Sterling this season. If he sorts out his finishing, he can score 25 league goals, no danger. He gets into so many clear-cut goalscoring positions, it’s untrue. Unfortunately, I think it will go the other way and he’ll end up being a fringe player who mostly comes off the bench because Guardiola cannot trust him to decide games.

Guardiola normally likes forwards who press from the front, not something we associate with Sergio Aguero, who is by far your top scorer. Should Pep adapt to suit Kun or vice versa?

Kun will have to adapt to Guardiola, and that’s the way it should be. If you’d asked me last February or March whether he’d still be a City player this season, I’d have said no. But there were little glimpses towards the end of the season that the penny was beginning to drop – with his pressing, the runs he was making, etc. He finished the last few games really well.

I’m still not totally convinced about his ability to pick a pass when he comes deep, because it’s not natural for him to drop deep in the first place and then he’s too slow to get his head up when he receives the ball in those areas. But if he adds that to his game, then I think we could be talking about a genuine world class player rather than a Premier League superstar who sometimes gets in the Argentina team.

Your central midfield at times consists of Yaya Toure, Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva. Can Kevin Keegan-esque tactics win a title at the elite level?

I think that’s going to be the big tactical talking point this season. We’ve done some good business over the summer but that’s the one remaining concern. We’re never going to play more than one holding midfielder and we’d back Ferandinho to do that job better than most but you can’t ask him to do it for 38 games, plus Champions League and everything else.

Guardiola evidently fancies Ilkay Gundogan to play that role in more of a Xavi way and that would be marvellous to see but his injury record remains a worry. If you could guarantee me that he stays injury-free and we only go without a sitting midfielder against weak opposition, then I’d say we’ll be OK. I’d be surprised if we won the title going totally gung-ho every week, but it would be great to see!

You’ve let go of your four aging full-backs, signing three new ones. Did you need a revamp in that area?

Absolutely. It’s been a standing joke among City fans for a couple of years now. Pablo Zabaleta is a club legend but he was past it 12 months ago as an elite-level performer and the jury has always been out on the other three. They were great players by pre-Mansour standards but we were always aware there were much better players available at other clubs.

You’ve not yet signed a centre-back. Is this risky, given Vincent Kompany’s injury record?

Given the strength in depth we have in other areas, it does seem a bit silly to be lacking cover in that position. Traditionally, we tend to see centre backs as a matter of priority but it’s more of an after-thought with Guardiola because if games are played on his terms then your centre backs don’t really have much to do. Nonetheless, you’d like to think it’s something we’ll address before the end of August.

Ederson Moraes is likely to be your number one goalkeeper after signing from Benfica. He’s effective with his feet, but do you think he’ll be more commanding than Claudio Bravo?

The early signs in pre-season have been good. Two things have been visible: he’s agile – maybe a bit too agile when the photographers have got their cameras at the ready! – and he’s quick off his line, so commanding would probably be the right word in that sense. He’s eager to see the danger early and snuff it out, which might lead to the odd comedy error but obviously suits the Guardiola philosophy in the long run.

Claudio Bravo is clearly a better keeper than what we saw last season but sometimes you just rock up somewhere and walk into a living nightmare, where it becomes a vicious circle and you can do nothing right. It seems now like he was never really cut out for the English game and it’s probably best all round if we sweep that one under the carpet and move on.

Man City aside, what are your thoughts ahead of the Premier League season as a whole?

I think the season will follow a similar pattern to the ‘post-Leicester’ reaction we witnessed last season. The top six will be far superior to everyone else but also respectful of the fact that the competition for the top four is so fierce that you cannot afford to drop your guard at any point, so complacency should be scarce.

My fear is that Mourinho will do his usual second-season thing because United did post impressive shot data between November and late March last season, before they went all-in on the Europa League. But I fear United at the start of every season, then cannot contain my glee (relief) when they prove to be just as harmless as the season before. If they don’t compete this time around, it’s time to finally accept them as a spent force.

Where will you finish?

First. Given the players at our disposal and how innovative the manager is when it comes to match strategy, it would be pretty soft of me to say anything else.

That said, I’d be much more confident if the question was, ‘Who do you think will score the most goals?’ or ‘who do you think will be the most entertaining team?’ The bottom line is that we have a mentality problem that needs addressing but City have been the benchmark team for the past five years now and that’s not going to change any time soon.

The Football Lab’s Verdict

Man City have strengthened in the full-back areas this season and retain a plethora of quality attacking options. A disregard for primarily defensive performers however, could hold them back in their quest for major honours. 4th

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