Guardiola sack now a kindness as Tielemans and Rogers embarrass The Old Men Of Man City
This is now the most extreme fall from collective grace in Premier League history. The best football team this division has ever seen has now lost nine games in 12 and we haven’t seen anything in that time to suggest their manager has any idea how to change their fortunes.
They have been embarrassingly bad and Not Having Rodri being the only reasonable excuse only adds to the embarrassment for a manager whose squad is worth £1.19bn.
Throughout this horrendous run which has seen them drop to sixth in the Premier League we’ve all been satisfied with the idea that Pep Guardiola will turn it around because he’s Pep Guardiola, but the more we see of this shadow of the champions the more we’re convinced of the need for fresh ideas and a change of mindset that 99 times out of 100 comes via a change of manager.
A prime Guardiola is that one in 100 anomaly but by his own admission he doesn’t have the “energy” to manage another club after Manchester City. Just as most of his players look past it, so does he, and while sacking him would be an incredibly bold move from a club that owes him everything, it now looks as though it would be a kindness for a man who insists he won’t resign and is at his lowest ebb in charge of a team that’s given up.
The opening goal was far more about Aston Villa than City. Youri Tielemans took the ball under pressure before playing one of the passes of the season. Morgan Rogers timed his run perfectly before unselfishly squaring the ball for Jhon Duran. It was direct football at its devastating best.
In normal circumstances City’s part in it would hardly deserve a mention, but in these extraordinary times we’ve been reprogrammed to expect mistakes and focus on them as they continue to cost Guardiola’s side.
Tielemans shouldn’t have been allowed to play the pass and Rogers should either have been caught offside or had his run tracked. We suspect one or possibly both players would have been stopped had it been Mateo Kovacic on Tielemans and John Stones on Rogers, as you would expect, rather than the other way around. But Stones jumped out of defence, Kovacic had to race back to cover him and both were two yards off where they needed to be.
It was perfection from Aston Villa, but perfection wouldn’t have been enough had the City players been doing their jobs.
City dominated possession in the first half but that played into Villa’s hands. As Guardiola admitted earlier this month “any team is better than us after we lose balls and concede transitions”, and Villa are among the best around when they turn the ball over. Near enough every time they pinched possession or City ceded it to them, four or five Villa players were running at the City defence, with a better decision or a more accurate pass the only thing preventing them from increasing their lead.
The City fragility was made apparent while many Villa Park patrons were still taking their seats, as Duran ran through one on one with Stefan Ortega and saw his tame effort saved after John McGinn had pounced on a dawdling Josko Gvardiol. Ortega clawed one off his line from the resulting corner, and then Amadou Onana headed over from another. Three huge chances for Villa came with barely two minutes on the clock.
In the second half Villa decided to take control. A team that doesn’t quite actively avoid possession but certainly isn’t overly bothered by it recognised that City weren’t going to pose a threat no matter how they approached the game and thought they would have more fun with the ball. And didn’t they just.
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Tielemans was taking the p*ss out of The Old Men Of Manchester City. Kovacic and Ilkay Gundogan made his life easier through their leaden boots, but the Belgian was superb in his more advanced role ahead of Onana and Boubacar Kamara, playing one-touch passes into Rogers and Duran when possible, taking the ball on the half turn with his head up and looking for runners in behind. He was gliding. If there’s been a better performance from a playmaker this season it must have been something really special.
Rogers was also at the forefront of the City mockery, wandering through the heart of Guardiola’s midfield at will, with his driving-runs zenith arriving before he doubled Villa’s lead. He picked up the ball deep in his own half, brushed aside Kyle Walker – ironically brought on for Stones at half-time to shore City up despite being the poster boy for their woes this season – then left Kovacic in his wake before playing a one-two with McGinn and taking his shot early to give Ortega no chance.
Duran led the line brilliantly, the midfield was excellent collectively and individually, and the defence snuffed out an incredibly isolated Erling Haaland with consummate ease. Let’s get it right, Villa were so, so good. But Manchester City were awful, with even their late consolation somehow managing to highlight their demise as Phil Foden – the best Premier League player of last season – scored his first of the campaign.
Their confidence has dipped to the point where they make mistakes, can’t play simple passes and are comically toothless in attack; if this was a team playing under any other manager there would also be accusations of downing tools and lost dressing rooms. They’ve stopped running.
What’s the only answer there’s ever been to that? Sack the manager. We’re told that can’t and won’t happen, and fine, but looking at Guardiola, looking at his players, we can’t help but think it would be a kindness to everyone involved.
