Do inexperienced Man City still have the mentality of champions?
Pep Guardiola once described Tottenham as 'the Harry Kane team', but amid Manchester City's ridiculous reliance on their own superstar striker this season, it has been suggested that his side could be renamed 'the Erling Haaland team'. But after Phil Foden pulled off a miraculous escape act against Leeds United on Saturday, a fairer description might be 'the Haaland AND Foden team'.
That does not reflect well on the rest of a City squad who seem to no longer have the air of invincibility that used to define them. One reading of Foden’s balletic, 91st-minute winner against Leeds that snatched victory after City threw away a two-goal lead in a mostly abject second-half display, was that Guardiola's side showed impressive mental resilience. Another, though, was that they almost threw away two points – if not three – with a complacent performance and had to rely on individual brilliance after a team capitulation.
City’s recent games suggest they are indeed vulnerable and that they are going to struggle to chase down Arsenal in the title race unless they kick a worrying recent habit of surrendering leads.
Getty Images Sport'Really struggling'
Guardiola didn’t want to read too much into the result nearly 48 hours later when he spoke before Tuesday’s trip to Fulham, but he certainly wasn’t hailing it as a positive shift in their mentality.
"It depends on Phil putting the ball in the net," he said in a dreary manner suggesting he was still not happy with how his team managed the second half. "I don't know that one win can define the mentality of the team. I don't believe in these kind of things."
Foden gave a more lengthy assessment of what happened, outlining what City did right and wrong: "We were in full control. They changed it around in the second half, changed the system and we couldn't seem to get going. We really struggled, to be honest. It was a frustrating half but when we had a short break, the manager got us together to adapt to their formation and we started playing again."
The England midfielder, who has six goals and three assists in all competitions this season, also warned his City team-mates that they cannot afford to play like they did in the second half on many more occasions.
"We have to work on things and get things better because when the opponents get better in the later stages of the season, we can't afford to come out like this because we're going to lose the league," Foden added. "We have to put things right and get better and just work hard on the training pitch.”
AdvertisementGetty Images SportConsistenly losing leads
Saturday marked the sixth time this season where City have surrendered a lead. They conceded twice in the final half-hour at Brighton to turn a 1-0 lead into a 2-1 defeat before letting in a 90th-minute equaliser from Gabriel Martinelli against Arsenal to draw 1-1. They were subsequently dominant in their Champions League outing against Monaco but twice lost their advantage, letting in their second equaliser in the 90th minute, while they conceded an equaliser against Bournemouth, when Gianluigi Donnarumma vented his fury for contact in the area, before eventually securing victory.
They also had poor second halves against both Villarreal and Borussia Dortmund in Europe, even though the scorelines – 2-0 and 4-1, respectively – suggested that they won both games comfortably.
AFPNo longer invincible
City's struggles to build on the momentum of a good start is becoming more pressing when they are no longer dominating every opponent, as evidenced by their defeats against Tottenham, Aston Villa and Newcastle in which they conceded the first goal.
City went into the game against Leeds on the back of consecutive defeats to Newcastle and Bayer Leverkusen, and Foden admitted that harmed their confidence: "Obviously, from our own performance, it wasn't good enough from start to finish. But sometimes it's like that when you come off the back of two defeats. For whatever reason, it's so much more difficult to get the three points when you come off the back of defeats."
"But today wasn't about the way we played or how we performed," he continued. "It was just for us about getting the win because we just wanted to feel how we used to feel with the three points."
That felt like an admission that something in City’s mentality has changed in the last year or so.
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Getty Images SportReplacing relentless winners
Guardiola's side no longer go into every game believing that they are going to win, nor do they seem capable of ensuring they are going to win even when they get off to a good start. Perhaps that should not be surprising given the turnover in the squad, with seven key members of the squad that won the treble in 2023 and secured a record-breaking fourth Premier League title a year later have since left.
This is not say that City were wrong to move on from those players, several of whom were no longer at their physical peak as they approached their mid-30s, such as Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Kyle Walker and Ederson. Julian Alvarez, meanwhile, asked to leave so as to play more, while Jack Grealish and Manuel Akanji were struggling with their fitness and form before being loaned out.
The insatiable winning mentality of the departed players, above all De Bruyne and Gundogan, has, however, proven very difficult to replace.