Manchester City Woes, As they slump to another defeat,What seems to be the solution?

Manuel Pellegrini leaves the pitch at Selhurst Park with Yaya Toure after the defeat by Crystal Palace

 

Pellegrini leaves the stadium as Manchester City suffered their fifth defeat in seven matches

 

For a net spend of £500million on transfer fees since 2008, Manchester City might have expected to have done better this season than fourth place in the Premier League and early exits in all three cup competitions.

So what has gone wrong at The Etihad Stadium and, more importantly, what can be done to put it right? We look at five major problems and possible solutions.

 

PROBLEM ONE: MANAGER MANUEL PELLEGRINI... HOLISTIC BUT UNINSPIRING

After the turbulent reign of Roberto Mancini, City made great play of appointing a 'holistic' manager in Manuel Pellegrini; calm, experienced, diplomatic and boasting a decent track record in Europe.

Unfortunately, the 61-year-old Chilean is now viewed as dull, uninspiring, tactically rigid and unable to get the club past the last 16 in the Champions League. Patience in Abu Dhabi must be wearing thin.

Most worryingly, some of the players who downed tools for Mancini seem to be off-message again. Edin Dzeko enjoyed a brief resurrection under Pellegrini but looks desperately unhappy with his bit-part role this season. Yaya Toure hasn't hit the heights of last season while new signings Eliaquim Mangala, Fernando and Wilfried Bony – combined cost £73million – can't even get in the first XI.

Pellegrini is undoubtedly a decent man and has shown everyone – players, opponents, the media – respect. But it hasn't been enough to get results and City need someone a little less holistic and a little more forceful. Tactically, he has been stubborn too, the insistence on playing with two strikers in big games has rarely worked as City have been outfought in midfield.

POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Pep Guardiola is the man they want but the Bayern boss is unlikely to be available this summer. Bookies' favourite Carlo Ancelotti is a bit laissez-faire like Pellegrini - he's allowed the Ronaldo-Bale rivalry to spiral out of control at Real Madrid. Perhaps the solution is a one-year stint from a hard taskmaster like Rafa Benitez until Guardiola can come. Or how about Brendan Rodgers if he comes in a job lot with Raheem Sterling?

The Manchester City hierarchy want Pep Guardiola to replace Pellegrini as the club's manager

 

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers could also be considered as an option by City

 

PROBLEM TWO: A STALE SQUAD... KOMPANY AND OTHERS IN DECLINE 

Having been penalised for over-spending a few years ago on the likes of Robinho, Emmanuel Adebayor and Roque Santa Cruz, City have been restricted on signings this season as a punishment for breaching FPP regulations and as a result their squad looks older and stale.

Aged 29 or over are: Bacary Sagna, Pablo Zabaleta, Martin Demichelis, Frank Lampard,Yaya Toure, Gael Clichy, Aleksandr Kolarov, James Milner, Edin Dzeko and David Silva. Too many.

Vincent Kompany is 28 but the more we see of him the harder it is to believe he will return to the extremely high levels of 2008-14. The new blood that has been recruited in the last couple of seasons haven't been good enough. Jesus Navas is quick but little else while Stevan Jovetic's recurring injury problems have seen the manager lose faith in him.

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany has fallen well short of the standards he set in recent seasons

 

James Milner looks set to leave the club in the summer as his contract expires at the end of the season

 

 

If Milner follows Lampard out of the club, City won't have a single English outfield player worthy of a starting position. It's not a good position for the club given the quotas of homegrown players needed in the Champions League and Premier League. For all the money spent, City only have two players in Joe Hart and Sergio Aguero who are world-class and at their peak, though you could make a case for 29-year-old Silva being at that level too.

SOLUTION: City need to get back to the old days of aggressive spending from the owners but this time on the right players. They should test Liverpool's resolve to keep Sterling by offering a British transfer record for the winger. Sterling could be one of the players they could build a new team around in the next five years and his arrival would help persuade Aguero and Silva to stay. Kevin de Bruyne and Paul Pogba would also be excellent additions. It'll cost a lot of money but it needs to be done. No wonder City are hoping the FPP punishment is lifted for the next window.

Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba has emerged as one of the most talented midfielders in Europe

 

City are also keen on bringing Wolfsburg midfielder Kevin de Bruyne back to the Premier League

 

PROBLEM THREE: THE RECRUITMENT POLICY... £32MILLION FOR ELIAQUIM MANGALA IS NOT VALUE FOR MONEY

Manuel Pellegrini and the Manchester City players are rightly getting a lot of criticism at the moment but in Abu Dhabi, it would be surprising if the work in the transfer market of chief executive Ferran Soriano and director of football Txiki Begiristain wasn't coming under scrutiny.

All the most important players in the City team – Hart, Aguero, Kompany, Toure, Silva – were signed before the Spaniards were brought in to try and replicate the success they had at Barcelona. Their efforts so far to replenish the squad haven't been cheap despite FPP restrictions, but the players have done little to suggest they are world-beaters.

Manchester City signed defender Eliaquim Mangala for £32million last summer and he has been poor

 

Wilfried Bony was signed in January from Swansea for £28m but has only scored once since arriving

 

Mangala, Fernando and Jovetic have been crushing disappointments. Alvaro Negredo headed back to Spain after a season, Bony has just arrived but it's fair to say he's hardly hit the ground running. And that quintet have cost more than £100million for very little impact. Mangala, at £32m, can't get a game ahead of 34-year-old Demichelis who is at least five years past his best and possibly more.

The public attention is off Begiristain and Soriano but they are as vulnerable as anyone else. They haven't yet delivered Guardiola, they haven't delivered Lionel Messi. All they've delivered is Fernando.

SOLUTION: City have got to forget any idea about trying to replicate Barcelona and focus on building a well-balanced squad that can succeed in the Premier League as well as Europe. Their attempts to buy mid-range players rather than A-listers has been a disaster because they've overpaid badly. Better to buy a world-class forward like Edinson Cavani and a cheaper stand-in such as Rickie Lambert than spend £80m-plus on Jovetic, Dzeko and Bony who are not one thing or another. You'd love to be a fly on the wall when Begiristain is next quizzed by his bosses.

Edin Dzeko has also been largely disappointing since arriving from Wolfsburg four years ago

 

Stevan Jovetic, a £22m signing from Fiorentina, hasn't come close to living up to that price tag

PROBLEM FOUR: LACK OF HOMEGROWN TALENT... NOBODY HAS EMERGED SINCE MICAH RICHARDS

Manchester City used to be envied for the amount of players they produced at their academy. Micah Richards, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joey Barton won England caps. But the old site at Platt Lane was ripped up and a glossy new Etihad Campus built at the stadium filled with young players captured from around the world.

And yet not a single one since 2008 has so far made any impact at first-team level. Those that show any promise are loaned abroad while the club continue to splash out on established players for their own first-team. Karim Rekik has played Champions League football for PSV while City have struggled defensively in Europe, another hope Marcos Lopes was shipped out to Lille this season.

No-one since Micah Richards, now on loan at Fiorentina, has made an impact from City's academy

 

Promising 19-year-old Marcos Lopes is playing on loan at Lille this season

It seems at this stage that either the wrong players have been selected for the academy or there is a lack of trust in them which is holding them back. Of course not every promising 16-year-old will go on to become a great player but you'd have thought as this crop reach 20 or 21, at least one of them could have been useful in a struggling City team.

As an old lady remarked on a Manchester tram when it stopped at Etihad Campus: 'Why don't they just call it City Stadium'. 

SOLUTION: A change in attitude is needed. You've invested millions in finding the best young players and nurturing them. Now you have to give them a chance in the Manchester City first-team and if it takes them a few games to find their feet, stick with them. Could Rekik really have done any worse than Mangala, or Stefan Savic or Matija Nastasic, all signed for big money? Did Alex Ferguson drop Beckham, Butt, Neville and Scholes after Alan Hansen said United wouldn't win anything with kids? No, he kept the faith and City should do the same.

Talented defender Karim Rekik has been shipped out on loan to PSV rather than given a chance in first team

 

PROBLEM FIVE: MONEY V TEAM SPIRIT...PLAYERS DON'T ALWAYS PUT CITY FIRST

In many ways, the untold millions of Abu Dhabi creates its own problems. Other European clubs are envious, which is why Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid have joined forces to make life as difficult as possible for City.

The club have had tough Champions League draws because of their seeding and punished for buying the most expensive players to compete.

Another problem is by offering huge wages, you attract players who only go for the money. Jack Rodwell, Adam Johnson and Scott Sinclair did it and grew disillusioned when they realised they weren't good enough to play. The overseas superstars tend to do their own thing off the pitch rather than buy into a club mentality.

Aston Villa midfielder Scott Sinclair joined City for big wages but was not good enough to play regularly

 

Certainly, they are not brought into line like an Alex Ferguson or Louis van Gaal would do at Manchester United, or Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool. For example, they may put their own commercial interests before the club, something that appears a bit selfish given they are being paid up to £200,000-a-week. These things are fine when the team is winning, but can be divisive when they're not.

SOLUTION: City have to be tougher with their players. If they sign on for big wages, they must be expected to put the club's interests first. So if the club want them to attend a community event, or meet a corporate sponsor, there should be no skiving or attempt to duck out. An old-fashioned manager would help with that. Van Gaal at United sees it as part of his job to impress on the players what they can do to help the club, and he can also assess that they're not doing too much off-field work.