“I know the reason why we are struggling now, 100%, I know.”
Pep Guardiola didn’t divulge the reason behind Manchester City’s struggles. However, the Spaniard, ever the perfectionist, will have spent hour after hour working out a solution to correct his side’s dip in form.
In this article, we’ll cover:
2026 hasn’t been kind to City, at least on the pitch. The Cityzens have, after all, signed Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi. Seven games this calendar year has yielded two wins. One of those was a 10-1 mauling of lower league side Exeter. Something isn’t quite right with the blue half of Manchester ahead of the weekend’s action.
City have endured tough start to 2026
City have endured an incredibly testing week. They lost the Manchester Derby last weekend, falling to a 2-0 defeat. Truth be told, they could, and should, have lost by more. Manchester United saw three goals chalked off for offside, and struck the woodwork twice. City then crashed to a 3-1 loss in the Arctic Circle as they were humbled by Bodo/Glimt. Rodri’s second half red compounded a miserable evening.
An ever-increasing injury crisis hasn’t aided City. Indeed, no fewer than seven players are missing due to various ailments for the meeting with the Premier League’s table footers. Matheus Nunes is a doubt due to illness. City aren’t necessarily down to the bare bones but injuries to their key defensive pair is what is ultimately weighing them down.
Guardiola may be refusing to hit the panic button but the absence of Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol and, to a lesser extent, John Stones is hurting the team more than some may care to admit.
Centre-back injuries hurting City
Not only are Dias and Gvardiol world class centre-backs, they are instrumental to the way City play. The Cityzens are one of the dominant sides in the Premier League. Only Liverpool (61.5%) have a higher possession average than City (59.3%) in England’s top tier this term.
Dias (73.8) and Gvardiol (68.8) rank among the top 11 players for passes per 90 in the 2025-26 Premier League campaign. The duo, though, don’t pass for the sake of passing. They are paramount to the way City quickly spring forward. A return of six counter-attacking goals ranks third in the Premier League this season.
The centre-back pairing utilise their vision and range to quickly get the ball upfield. Gvardiol ranks top for accurate long balls (38) of all City outfield players this season. Dias (32) is fifth. The latter is top for forward passes (415), of which the former places third (349).
Furthermore, Dias (173) and Gvardiol (190) place in the top 10 for final third passes completed for the club. City are the only team with multiple centre-backs in the top five for this metric. With both currently missing, it’s no shock that City look blunt going forward, the Exeter win aside.
The failure to get the ball forward at speed allows for opponents to set up quickly, thus limiting space for the attackers to hurt teams. This was a major reason behind the push to sign Guehi this month.
Reasoning behind Guehi push
Liverpool were hellbent on signing Guehi over the summer but failed to complete the deal for the England international on deadline day. Their failure has worked in City’s favour. Once it was confirmed Gvardiol would miss most, if not all, of the rest of the season, City mobilised to win the race for the 25-year-old.
Guehi does, after all, rank seventh of centre-backs for final third passes completed (157) in the Premier League this season. The former Crystal Palace has also managed 441 forward passes and 50 accurate long balls, both of which are more than Dias and Gvardiol, though passes per 90 (53.2) is lower.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise. Palace are a more pragmatic side than City, which means there is a greater onus on Guehi to get the ball forward quickly once they have soaked up pressure. Yet it’s proof that Guehi is able to get the ball into dangerous areas from distance, and do so quickly. He has experience playing in a dominant side for England, where across three World Cup qualification outings, he averaged 103.7 passes per 90.
And Guardiola has confirmed that Guehi will make his City debut against Wolves this weekend. As a result, supporters should see a more direct City outfit on Saturday afternoon. They won’t be lumping the ball long to Erling Haaland, but rather maximising Guehi’s distribution to quickly progress the ball to the attacking players.
City have looked ponderous in the final third in recent weeks. The issues ultimately stem from the 1-1 draw with Chelsea earlier this month when Dias and Gvardiol pulled up injured. With Guehi on the books and ready to feature, the Cityzens should now start look back to their conquering selves.
