How Manchester City lost the EPL title

Manchester City’s defeat at Selhurst Park on Monday, their third league defeat in their last five games means that their hopes of retaining their title hangs by the slimmest of threads. In fact most bookmakers believe that the probability of them finishing outside the Champions League places is now higher than their chances usurping Chelsea in the title race. But exactly how did it go awry for the Champions?

Their manager is too undynamic

Manuel Pellegrini’s reign at City has been defined by relative calmness, relative to his predecessor, Roberto Mancini, but as the saying goes, too much of everything is bad, even calmness. City have become a team without an identity for much of this season, and in truth, even when they won the title last season, it was because Rodgers’ immaturity showed in games at the death against Chelsea and Crystal Palace, while Chelsea suffered from their lack of a potent striker. Pellegrini seems to favour a 4-4-2 regardless of the opponent, or their style of play and it has hurt them severally this season. Also, there is no urgency nor pattern to the play, someone referred to it as “entitled football”, they just knock it around and expect that something will happen, and opposing managers must have studied this and figured City out. Sammy Alladyce summarized it aptly when he said: “There are two types of coaches. There’s coaches like me who weigh up the opposition and ask the team to adjust. Fergie was similar. Jose is similar. Then there’s Arsene, who won’t adjust. There’s Brendan , who looks like he won’t adjust. There’s Pellegrini, who looks like he won’t adjust, even in the Champions League. He seems to favour what he’s got. City are quite open.

“Their [Wenger/Rodgers/Pellegrini’s] philosophy is different to ours. Ours is more about who are we playing against. Their philosophy is more, ‘We always play this way’, and they won’t change, they carry doing on the same thing. That’s why you can beat them.”

Key players leaving their prime

Either for form reasons, or for age reasons, City’s core seems to be composed of players whose powers are in the wane. Kompany looks miles off the player who was very recently one of the top three center backs in the world, Yaya Toure has lost his magic, Silva seems to be spending more and more time in the pockets of defensive midfielders, Aguero’s last league goal was in late February, Zabaleta is losing his ability to dominate midfielders. Only Joe Hart has improved his worth in the eyes of anyone this season.

Hundreds of millions spent on underperforming players

This season, even with FFP curtailing them, City spent 40 million pounds on Elaquim Managala, 12 million pounds on Fernando, 30 million pounds on Bony, and took a 31-year-old Sagna off Arsenal’s hands and put him on big money wages. None of them have contributed anything tangible to City’s course this season. If you match this with the contributions of the likes of Costa, Fabregas, Alexis, Herrera, Rojo to their club’s cause this season, you can see why City are lagging behind. Infact, if you add the 2013 summer signings of Jovetic, Negredo, Navas, Fernandinho and Demichelis, only the latter two justified their massive price tag.

More mercenaries than loyalists

Is it a coincidence that the most consistent performer for Man City this season is the only British player in their starting XI? I doubt it. A good number of first team players in Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletico Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal are home grown. It is probably no coincidence either that Arsene Wenger’s first side to win a trophy in ten years was after he embraced the “British Core”. Majority of the homegrown players in city are just there to make up the numbers; Lampard, Milner, Boyata, they are realistically nowhere near the first team. It isn’t that the flag on your passport should necessarily transcend the quality, rather it is that it is good to have players who grew up in the country, who see it as a thing of pride to play for an elite club in their country of birth, as against players who see it as a job or a route to trophies.

Motivation

I watched City lose to Burnley, and Crystal Palace. In both games, I expected the game to end with the underdogs hanging on for dear life, defenders making blocks and last minute tackles, goalkeeper diving left and right making impossible saves. None of this happened. In both games, the drive and determination you’ll expect to see from a team with something at stake never materialized. You could sense the defeat amongst the players; they know their race for the title is run. Only teams comfortably in mid table show that kind of indifference with the end of the season so near. Maybe the looming possibility of playing in the less fancied Europa League will be the kick up the backside they need. And what better game to turn it back on than in the Manchester derby?

Adedamola Obisesan