Dynasties, empires, kingdoms, even entire civilizations… inevitably come to an end. It’s a law of life, a law not even the world of football is immune to. This footballing season gave us a lot of narratives and potential headlines, but perhaps none more important than Manchester City‘s spectacular fall. It’s not only the magnitude of the fall that makes it such a story, but its completely unexpected nature.
Becoming the first team ever to win the Premier League four times in a row, with a decent mixture of experience and youth and the three lines led by Joško Gvardiol, Phil Foden and Erling Haaland – all elite players who are yet to turn 25, it all suggested that Manchester City will make a run for all the trophies yet again. They did indeed enjoy a decent start to the new campaign, but things took a turn for the worse very early.
Rodri’s injury sparked a crisis
The 21st minute of the 5th Round of the Premier League is where it all started to go wrong for the Citizens – at 1-0 up against Arsenal, Rodri fell down holding his knee and the following medical reports confirmed the worst – a torn ACL. If there was ever an irreplaceable player in Manchester City’s system, it was Rodri, and the results that followed quickly proved that to be true.
In the months that followed, their squad was plagued by injuries of all sorts and it had an inevitable effect on their performances. Towards the end of October, they fell into a slump in which they’ve only won three of their fifteen matches played until the start of January, crashing out of the EFL Cup, losing way too much ground in the Premier League and barely staying above water in Europe.
Panic buying with no immediate effect
Manchester City’s leadership saw the January window as an ideal opportunity to try and strengthen the squad and salvage anything from this season. They reinforced all three lines with Abukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis, Nico González and Omar Marmoush. Huge investments, largely investments for the future, but the Citizens did certainly hope to get something out of them as soon as possible. Saying that they’ve got nothing would be completely unfair, especially towards Omar Marmoush, but they didn’t quite save the season either as they are sitting in 4th place and out of the Champions League before even making it to the Round of 16. Manchester City’s results this season, however, were never a question of their new signings’ performances.
Levels dropping all over the place
The main cause of the troubles lies in their most standard players’ level dropping. In many of their cases, an injury and a recovery process played a part in that level change, but it’s not the case for all. The following infographics show the difference in the average Sofascore ratings for Manchester City players across all club competitions in the previous two seasons. A patter is more than noticeable.
Conclusion
It will most definitely be a season to forget for Manchester City, even though they are slowly seeming to get a grasp of things. Too little, too late in terms of significant titles, but still early enough in the season to cement their spot in the next season’s Champions League. The summer ahead, however, will be incredibly busy for their front office as all reports suggest that their squad is in for a major overhaul.