Man City Seek Champions League Comfort To Ease Premier League Pain
The English champions are in the unusual position of pondering qualification for the Champions League’s knockout stages ahead of a challenging trip to the Italian giants Juventus due to Manchester City’s malaise.
The worst run of Pep Guardiola’s managerial career was caused by an injury crisis and a loss of form for some of their biggest stars, who have won just once in their previous nine games.
Despite a 4-1 humbling by Sporting Lisbon and an embarrassing collapse from 3-0 up to draw 3-3 against Feyenoord, they are still in a position to qualify from the new league-phase format.
They sit 17th in the 36-team table, with a top-24 finish enough to secure a place in the playoff round at the least.
However, they appear to have slim chances of making it to the top eight because a January home game against Club Brugge will require a further challenging trip to Paris Saint-Germain.
City’s Premier League title defense is seemingly in ruins, so City needs to prepare for the Champions League.
After an unprecedented four consecutive English top-flight titles, the champions, in fourth place, trail Liverpool by eight points and Arne Slot’s men also have a game in hand.
During Guardiola’s six titles successes in the last seven years, City have frequently excelled at winning at home straight.
The music around the Etihad is different this time, with significant injuries to come from an aging squad.
“The season starts difficult, it will be difficult all season”, said Guardiola after his side’s latest stumble in a 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace on Saturday.
“We have to survive the season, every game, try to take points, to try to win games and go forward”.
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City squad: “not enough”
Rodri, who was the recipient of the Ballon d’Or, is the biggest disappointment and hasn’t returned since September with an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
The big names have missed significant amounts of the campaign so far include John Stones, Nathan Ake, Mateo Kovacic, and Oscar Bobb, while Kevin De Bruyne, Ruben Dias, and Phil Foden are also on the list.
Midfielder Bernardo Silva remarked, “If the squad is this short, it’s always very difficult for all the players to play three days after three days.”
“With a squad of 20 players, if you only have 13 available, it is not good enough”.
With only 12 games left until the end of the league season on January 29 in the first 50 days between the Juventus game and the city’s final game, they have little time to heal.
The doctors and physios are performing incredible things this season like no other time in my opinion, but we have few players available to rotate, according to Guardiola. “This season will be this,” he predicted.
Don’t feel sorry, accept the challenge, and you might find that our behavior will be more positive than it was in previous seasons when we won the titles.
If their medical room is full, and they return to their best form during the decisive springtime period, the hopes are that City will still be Champions League contenders.
Almost certainly, qualification will only be secured by one win out of their final three games.
With Juventus currently languishing in sixth place in serie A and struggling with a four-game winless streak, all three of their future opponents are below them in the table.
City need to look back just two years for inspiration. After consuming silverware for so long, Guardiola was questioned by his team’s defeats to Brentford, Southampton, Manchester United, Tottenham in the winter months of the 2022/23 campaign.
A few months later, they lifted the treble, including the club’s only Champions League to date.
Source: Channels TV
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