Manchester City and their “survival” season

It was first of the previous derby in December, when Pep Guardiola said that this season would be concerned “surviving” for his Manchester City team, and this had to be still the case.

Don’t make mistakes, the city is much better than they were then, but the scars of those particularly dark days were still evident in the low quality of Sunday, without Manchester Derby networks, where he felt as if he had avoided another large setback was the priority n. 1.

The City striker threat was hindered by the absence of Erling Haaland and Guardiola says that his team played too quickly to establish their usual dominant style, but in the end they seemed like a team that tried not to lose – or at least avoid another overwhelming blow for their trust.

“The season has started difficult and will be difficult for the whole season, so we have to survive this season and each game tries to take points and win the games and then go on,” said Guardiola a couple of days after a poor defeat at Juventus in December.

They then got the collapse completely in the last moments of the derby at the Etihad stadium to leave the staff and players once again: it was another instinct punch to lose 4-0 at home against Tottenham and launch an advantage of three goals to draw 3-3 against Feyenoord in the weeks before.

United States players celebrate Amad’s 90th minute winner at the Ethhad of December (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Even in the new year, they were humiliated by Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal and Real Madrid, and although they have been really more solid since they added four new players to the team in the winter transfer window, they have still had quite recent struggles to curb their approach to Old Trafford.

It was only a couple of games that they seemed quite firm against the Nottingham forest, just to give up a fairly soft goal and lose the game for 1-0. The points fallen in those situations are one thing, but this season has most concerned the mental setbacks that City had to endure.

City finds himself Quinto, a point behind Chelsea, one in front of Aston Villa and two in front of Newcastle (who have two games in their hand) while trying to get enough points for a place in the Champions League next season. While they do it, it seems that Guardiola will lean on her old guard, her “legendary players” as she called them after the victory of the England Cup on Sunday in Bournemouth.

The real legends of the club such as Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan have fought as much as anyone who this season, as well as Mateo Kovacic and Phil Foden, yet they were chosen to win the duels and make sure that the city lived and dies in these parts against fast and physical teams.

Silva and Guardiola after Sunday 0-0 (Alex Livesey/Danehouse/Getty Images)

There was a short Renaissance period in February, when Guardiola collected the side of the largest city of his nine -year -old mandate against Liverpool and followed him with another vibrant XI at Tottenham. A fan of the city has nicknamed the “Pep puppies” like Nico Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov, Omar Marmoush, Savinho, Jeremy Doku and Haaland have created fresh energy.

That night in Tottenham, Foden, De Bruyne, Bernardo and Gundogan looked at the Touch line as they warmed up, and it seemed that the reconstruction of the early and much necessary city was well started.

But in two of the last three games, Guardiola turned to his legends and when he was asked about his training at Old Trafford, he gave an answer that does not really make sense when it was written, but could be interpreted as “we will do it together one last time”.

“I am satisfied with Gundogan, Kova, Bernie and all of them,” he told the BBC. “All of us, we will pass through that position this season, next season we will see what happens.”

On another occasion, he insisted on the fact that he collects his teams based on the way the opposition plays and “as he feels when he wakes up in the morning”, stressing that he used wings against Leicester City in the mid -week.

There will always be changes while Guardiola is in command, but its reference approach in particularly difficult games-away games away from home against the teams that can punish the city on pause, especially when its team is not so stable-it is to clog the vehicle’s vehicle and make “a thousand, millions of passages”.

De Bruyne and Guardiola (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

And when the city is in the trenches, Guardiola will choose her boys. During an interview with Neil Warnock for Sky Sports at the beginning of this season, he defended his use of his senior players, asking why he shouldn’t have trusted them after all they gave him. It is a topic that has also moved away on another occasion, having been asked a completely different question.

At the end of 2024, things had gone so bad that fans wanted to see a new blood in midfield in the shape of graduates from the James Mcatee or Nico O’Reilly Academy. Mcatee is still on the sidelines and, irony of fate, O’reilly is now making his turn as a left back.

It is difficult to argue that Guardiola is becoming a conservative when he plays a 19 -year -old midfielder at the left of the defense against United at Old Trafford, but what is clear is that his trust in those who have won so much for him will never end.

Guardiola said it was his and football director Txiki Begiristain not to renew De Bruyne’s contract, and given his struggles this season is a decision that makes sense, yet he is asked to intensify the biggest matches.

Guardiola said he chose De Bruyne and Gundogan for the quality of their deliveries, which is solid logic but it was easier to do that case a couple of years ago.

Last week, Bernardo himself hit the idea that the team is “old” – a word guardiola actually used to describe the team in January – and on Sunday he staged a performance that suggested to him, at 30, he still has a lot to give. In the second half, he contributed to working together the city passage game, before the others surrendered more. He had a very difficult season, but if he plays so much more often, it will not be difficult to understand why Guardiola continues to lean on him.

It is slightly unusual that Nico Gonzalez, the holding midfielder that Guardiola has nicknamed a “mini-roders” after his debut in the Premier League against Newcastle, was omitted by Bournemouth and United matches.

The Spaniard was taken off in that Spurs game because he was leaving too many spaces behind him, and it can be weak in some duels, but it is difficult to argue that the Kovacic rates are better in those aspects, and Gonzalez seems to offer stability through his positioning, if nothing else.

It seems destined to play a role in the next iteration of the city of Guardiola, as well as Khusanov, Marmoush, Savinho and Vitor Reis in the Brazilian defender, which is introduced very gradually.

But until the end of the season, Guardiola will lean on her legendary players while they continue to try to survive.

(Photo above: Carl Recine/Getty Images)