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The City manager conceded five goals for the first time in his coaching career in the loss to Leicester, leaving his team already chasing Liverpool.
Pep Guardiola has created a number of firsts during his time at Manchester City.
He is the first manager to lead any team to 100 points, the first to win Manager of the Month four times in a row, and the first to win consecutive Premier League titles in a decade.
For the first time he has been with a club for five years as a manager, but has already set an unwanted record at the start of his fifth season; has conceded five goals for the first time.
Alarmingly, City’s miserable 5-2 loss at home to Leicester City suggests that they may not be able to compete with Liverpool for the second season in a row.
Jurgen Klopp’s team barely made a misstep in the early part of last season as they ran clear as their rivals made mistakes. This time, City is already part of the chasing group and has now made its first stumble.
Guardiola must act quickly if he wants to prevent another campaign from fading before it even begins.
Spend, spend, spend
The Covid-19 pandemic has seriously affected the finances of all clubs and so far City have been overtaken by title rivals Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham.
Defender Nathan Ake and winger Ferran Torres have been the only newcomers as they have lost the quality of David Silva and Leroy Sane.
That will change this week with the arrival of much-needed central defender Ruben Dias, who will join from Benfica in a deal worth 70 million euros (64 million pounds / 82 million dollars) with Nicolas Otamendi moving elsewhere for 15 million euros (14 million pounds sterling / 17 million US dollars).
A right-back has been the priority signing all summer and the 23-year-old Portuguese international will finally be the long-awaited replacement for Vincent Kompany, who left the club nearly 18 months ago.
With the transfer window closing on October 5, Guardiola urgently needs more reinforcements with his stretched squad and no ideas.
Against Leicester, he started without a recognized striker and with only 17-year-old rookie Liam Delap on the bench due to injuries to Sergio Agüero and Gabriel Jesús.
Goals were a problem last season and this team needs fresh ideas, particularly against well-organized opponents like Leicester, who know how to thwart them.
More urgent is the left-back position where Benjamin Mendy has started the season looking fragile on defense and lacking confidence in the future. With only Oleksandr Zinchenko as an alternative, City look short as they have been in the position for years, getting by with makeshift substitutes.
If they don’t act now, it could be costly again.
Take the pressure off
Guardiola said his team became anxious when they went 1-0 at Leicester before their capitulation.
“We didn’t believe much and we started to think we weren’t playing well,” he said at his post-match press conference. “We pressured ourselves to score second, but we have to be calmer.
“We were anxious, we got nervous by not creating chances. We told them at half-time that they were playing well, to be patient and the rest will be in our hands ”.
The problem may well have been that the players knew exactly what was coming. Jamie Vardy is the perfect player to exploit City’s flaws and served as a warning with a couple of menacing breaks long before completing his hat-trick on Sunday.
The Foxes used the same tactic as Arsenal in the FA Cup, Lyon in the Champions League and Wolves and Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium last season to capitalize on defensive weaknesses.
A nervous, high-line defense is easy to attack and, at the moment, City have no answers.
Guardiola will not change the way he plays, dominating possession and playing in the last third of opponents.
His side fell apart when he stripped off the extra protection of defensive midfielder Fernandinho in search of more goals for City without a physical threat. But it failed and Leicester and Vardy seized it to devastating effect.
A more cautious touch could help them get through a difficult period until they regain full strength and play their best.
Get rid of the cups
City have won the Carabao Cup for the past three seasons, but it could be time to give it less priority.
In a shorter season, the schedule will be punishing and set to test all teams, so something might have to give.
Guardiola had seven first-team players to go for the visit to Leicester and he won’t have too many for the trip to Leeds United next weekend. That already feels like a must-win game and is considerably bigger than the fourth-round trip to Burnley on Wednesday night.
By defeating Bournemouth in the middle of the week, the town chief chose a mix of academy and first-team players. With the level of play after the hour, Guardiola turned to Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne to secure victory, but in a punishment campaign, a few days off may be more beneficial.
Guardiola wants to win all the competitions in which he participates and that is an admirable attitude.
In an extraordinary season, he might have to make the unusual decision to prioritize only the Premier League and Champions League and leave the cups to someone else.
