Will Club World Cup help Manchester City fix what’s broken?

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Manchester City have arrived in Saudi Arabia wanting so as to add the FIFA Club World Cup to their already bulging trophy cupboard, however for the primary time shortly, their reign as kings of England is below menace.

History suggests Pep Guardiola’s staff ought to raise the trophy at King Abdullah Sports City on Friday, as a result of the European consultant and UEFA Champions League winner often does. But they’ve creaked sufficient within the Premier League over the primary half of the season to present everybody else in Jeddah — together with Brazil’s Fluminense, champions of South America — simply that little little bit of hope.

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City do not do wobbles like most different groups. And at a time after they’re being questioned, they nonetheless managed to fly by the group stage of the Champions League with an ideal report of six wins from six. In the Premier League, although, it has been a unique story.

They’ve already dropped factors in seven video games — 4 attracts and three defeats — to slide behind Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa within the desk. Twice this season there have been such blips, together with three defeats in 4 video games in September and October, and one win in 5 in November and December. The ship appeared to regular with wins in opposition to Luton Town and Red Star Belgrade, however after a 2-2 house draw with Crystal Palace on Saturday instantly earlier than their flight to Saudi Arabia, there stays a sense that this staff is way extra susceptible then the 2022-23 treble winners.

City face Japanese aspect Urawa Red Diamonds of their Club World Cup semifinal on Tuesday for a spot in Friday’s remaining in opposition to both Fluminense or Al Ahly of Egypt, who knocked out Karim Benzema’s Al Ittihad on Friday.

“It would be better to go on a six- or seven-hour flight with a win, of course,” mentioned Guardiola. “We have just three days to recover, and then just three days for a potential final, but it is what it is. Now we are down and we have to lift for the Middle East as quickly as possible and go to compete there.”

Problems, although, are mounting at house. Never earlier than have Guardiola’s City had fewer than their present 34 factors after 17 video games within the Premier League.

On Saturday, Crystal Palace scored twice within the remaining 14 minutes — together with a Ninety fifth-minute penalty — to return again from 2-0 down to attract 2-2 on the Etihad Stadium, and afterwards, Guardiola didn’t need to search for excuses. “It’s not bad luck, it’s deserved,” mentioned the City supervisor, who has been with out star striker Erling Haaland for the previous three video games due to a foot harm. “We gave away two points and if you give away a penalty, you deserve it.”

Conceding late objectives is changing into one thing of a theme for City, who’ve let leads slip in opposition to Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and now Palace of their previous six video games. “[The Palace game] was quite similar to the rest of the season,” Guardiola mentioned. “We were not able to close the game and when you give them a penalty, we didn’t deserve to win.”

Despite their home struggles, City have nonetheless arrived in Jeddah as heavy favourites, however what is going to give everybody else only a glimmer of hope is the lack of the factor Guardiola craves greater than something: management. He usually judges the standard of a efficiency by the variety of photographs his goalkeeper has confronted, and by nearly each statistical metric, opponents are having extra success in opposition to City this season.

Their possession proportion in Premier League video games this season is down from 64.9% to 61.3%, they’ve confronted a mean of 5.8 photographs per recreation within the league this season in comparison with 5.3 final season, and Premier League opponents are averaging 0.933 Expected Goals (xG) this season after averaging 0.864 xG final season.

City have conceded pricey late objectives, however have additionally developed a behavior of going behind, too. They’ve conceded the opening objective in six video games this season after doing it simply seven instances all through the entire of final season.

It hasn’t helped Guardiola that he has been with out two of his three treble-winning midfielders — Ilkay Gündogan joined Barcelona in the summertime, whereas Kevin De Bruyne hasn’t performed because the opening weekend of the season after present process hamstring surgical procedure — and the opposite, Rodri, has already served two suspensions. The Spain midfielder has missed 4 home video games, and City have misplaced every time. It’s laborious to foretell what staff Guardiola would possibly decide in opposition to Urawa Red Diamonds — acutely aware of a packed Christmas fixture record upon their return to England — however you’ll be able to guess Rodri can be in it.

City have points to resolve in the event that they need to make it a report 4 Premier League titles in a row, however the query is whether or not their competitors on the Club World Cup is nice sufficient to show them. European groups have dominated the event since its inception in 2000, successful the previous 10 in a row. History is behind Guardiola and his gamers in Saudi Arabia, even when kind shouldn’t be.