Pep Guardiola is perhaps the biggest manager we have ever seen and it is difficult to question someone who has won 39 trophies.
Not since his first season in Manchester City he has not succeeded in getting silverware – but this probably seems like a different campaign without any.
On the edge of elimination from the Champions League after their dramatic defeat by Real Madrid. From the Carabao Cup. The city is still in the FA Cup, but the Premier League title has almost disappeared. Their goal is now a top-four finish.
It is an uncomfortable thing to say in this phase of the season, but we witness a team that falls from greatness.
Again this week City was defeated by a late goal. This season it has been a regular characteristic of their downfall. The Madrid match was great theater, but there was no control in the performance of the city.
They have lost five games this season in which they led, as much as in the last four seasons together. When will this team rediscover their winning mentality? It was the ninth time in 24 games that they admitted twice in the 10 -minute room.
Guardiola tells us that his city side is not 'stable'. You get stability of consistency and winning. If you continue to experience late setbacks, it eats your self -confidence.
The football principles of the Catala are about controlling property in the middle of the park. He wants to pass on teams to submission. He will not compromise about that, but he does not have the players now to perform his requirements.
City still presses high with a front five with Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva, who do not have the energy and young people to stop their defense teams such as Madrid.
These players are football royalty, but they are no longer young men. Jack Grealisk did not look at full fitness and Savinho continued to give the ball away. Madrid was able to play from behind without any real pressure on the ball.
Losing the city more often has in central areas and their attacking form makes them wide open for counterattacks. Madrid ended the game with almost twice as many shots as the city.
There are still times of sparkle. The purpose of Erling Haaland was something of beauty. Josko Gvardiol played a brilliant reverse pass, followed his run and stopped it for Haaland, who produced a super finish.
Tactically, when City really attacked, both stops their entire back at the center of John Stones, a defender who plays as an improvised midfielder. That effectively left the city with three defenders in their engine room and they didn't look insured on the ball.
In the Treble team I thought Pep had cracked the code when he asked Stones to go to midfield and put Kyle Walker in the back line to deliver extra pace alongside Manuel Akanji and Ruben Dias, who thrown counterfaccons.
That was the perfect balance between attack and defense. City no longer has that.
We doubt Pep on our danger. He has only signed a two -year -old deal, but he has shown in the past that he is enough time for him to work out the answers. He will soon have to find the balance on Saturday, because if there is a team and a manager who is perfectly suited to expose the mistakes of the city, it is Newcastle.
Eddie Howe's tactical arrangement on two Carabao Cup matches against Arsenal, another team that wants to control the ball, exposed the Gunners to the pace of Alexander Isak, Jacob Murphy and Anthony Gordon.
Both parties in the Etihad on Saturday know that there is a Champions League place for picking up. Newcastle has had a taste of it and are hungry for more. It would be unthinkable that City is not part of it, so it is time for Pep's men to concentrate their minds and regain their control.
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