Has Pep lost the plot?

Injury-hit City must not allow blip to become a crisis.

Humbled in Manchester, battered in Bodo, City have gone from chasing Arsenal to chasing their own shadows and pulling shirts.

A fortnight ago, Antoine Semenyo joined to spearhead a push for the title.

Now Marc Guehi comes to steady a listing ship.

Seven points behind the Gunners and unsure of an automatic place in the next round of the Champions League, the City defence has been taking on water.

“Things are going wrong… in many, many details,” admits Pep Guardiola.

The manager can’t hide his bewilderment as December carried so much promise.

City outplayed Real Madrid in the Bernabeu and the word ‘ominous’ was becoming a prefix.

Their superb cup form saw them take a 2-0 first leg lead against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup and whack Exeter 10-1 in the FA Cup.

We wondered if we were witnessing the dawning of another great Pep generation.

They were unbeaten in 13 games, but it proved no more than a false dawn.

Earlier this month, they stalled, drawing three league games in a row. They are yet to win one this year,

Tactically, Pep was outmanoeuvred by an interim coach (Calum MacFarlane) against Chelsea and a rookie (Michael Carrick) at Old Trafford.

But no one saw this latest collapse coming.

It’s only two games, but the Blues were embarrassing in the derby, and worse than that in the Arctic Circle.

Instead of rare earth, even the pitch was unyielding plastic.

What is worrying City, and why this blip is being talked up in the media, is not just the two defeats, but the manner of them.

“Fragile” is the word Pep used to describe his team in Norway, and, after spending almost as much as Liverpool in the transfer market, that is not what the owners expected to hear.

To be fair, the casualties do resemble an ancient battlefield. No less than nine players were missing in midweek, with the heart of defence ripped open.

The simultaneous loss of Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias was a devastating double blow, with John Stones already being out.

But sympathy for City, who still await a verdict on those 130 charges, is hard to find.

They’ve invested heavily in three successive transfer windows, but can’t find the right blend.

There’s no like-for-like successor to Kevin De Bruyne; Mateus Nunes hasn’t come close to replacing Kyle Walker and, perhaps most crucially of all, Rodri hasn’t replaced Rodri.

The current version, who was reduced to shirt-pulling to earn two yellow cards inside a minute, is nowhere near the player who won the Ballon d’Or in 2024.

It’s almost 18 months since he tore his ACL and Pep doesn’t think he’ll remove all the rust until the World Cup.

Other key men have also stopped delivering.

After bagging 25 goals in 23 games, Erling Haaland has only one penalty in his last eight outings and hasn’t scored from open play in a month.

He couldn’t even get one against Exeter!

Phil Foden is on a nine-game drought, didn’t last the 90 minutes in midweek and was hooked at half-time at Old Trafford.

Some of the signings have been good. Gianluigi Donnarumma is in the top three keepers in the world and has saved them from heavier beatings.

Jeremy Doku can be dazzling, Rayan Cherki is a brilliant maverick and both Semenyo and Guehi will surely improve things.

But it was KDB and Rodri that made them tick.

Bodo was a new low for City. It’s a small-town team that was in the Norwegian Second Division as recently as 2017.

Even now, its squad value is £57m – just £8m short of what City paid for Semenyo.

It was a defeat that belonged to the old ‘Cock-up City’ days before the takeover and was a grave embarrassment for the Abu Dhabi-owners.

At least the players had the decency to cover the expenses of the 347 fans who made the journey to Bodo. It was less than £10k, but the gesture was important.

Norway’s Haaland was the prime mover, perhaps feeling guilty about an unhappy trek to the frozen north of his homeland.

The money didn’t come from the club, which had refused struggling Exeter’s request for a larger share of the gate money.

City’s season is far from over. With one foot in the Carabao Cup final, still in the FA Cup and Champions League, they have a lot to play for.

And this blip does not feel like the wobble of the previous season when they lost nine of 12 matches.

They have strengthened since then, but it does make you wonder about Pep’s future.

Having renewed his contract for two more years, it had looked as if he was hellbent on a rebuild.

To win the title again with yet another vintage would add even more lustre to his legacy.

But if this group isn’t good enough and he tires of life in Manchester – the hassle, the weather and the media – he may not see it through.

As a proud Catalan, he will not coach Spain, but Brazil might appeal if Carlo Ancelotti quits after the World Cup. And possibly England.

City host bottom-of-the-table Wolves on Saturday so will not have a better chance to return to an even keel. Then it’s Galatasaray, also at home, next week.

Guardiola’s and City’s future will depend on how the club negotiates the next couple of months, let alone these two matches.

For a successful outcome, you feel he will have to work on a bit more than a few details. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.