The end of 2024 comes with news that no one saw coming, that of the association between Pep Guardiola and defeat. The most victorious coach of the 21st century, the undisputed reference not only for his collection of triumphs but for the influence he had and has on football and his way of understanding it, he assumes that he is facing the most difficult challenge of his career. Guardiola must stop the drift of a team that until two months ago was unapproachable and that, since Tottenham knocked them out of the League Cup on October 30, has collected nine defeats and two draws in twelve games in which they have accumulated 14 goals. in favor and 27 against.
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Emiliano Martínez, Pau Torres, Lucas Digne, Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa, Boubacar Kamara, Morgan Rogers (Emiliano Buendía, min. 90), Amadou Onana, John McGinn, Youri Tielemans and Jhon Durán (Ollie Watkins, min. 79)
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Stefan Ortega, Manuel Akanji, Rico Lewis, Josko Gvardiol, John Stones (Kyle Walker, min. 45), Ilkay Gündogan (Savinho, min. 72), Mateo Kovacic (Jérémy Doku, min. 83), Jack Grealish, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and Erling Haaland
Goals
1-0 min. 15: Jhon Durán. 2-0 min. 64: Morgan Rogers. 2-1 min. 92: Foden
Referee Peter Bankes
yellow cards
Matthew Cash (min. 36), Emiliano Martínez (min. 46), Rico Lewis (min. 46), Gvardiol (min. 83), Grealish (min. 86), McGinn (min. 93)
The new fiasco came this time at Villa Park (2-1) against a rival who is going through a period of irregularity, but who has already surpassed them in the table. Aston Villa, who had barely won in three of the previous eleven rounds, is fifth in the standings while City, champion of the last four Premier Leagues, is at risk of finishing the round in ninth position.
Villa beat City, who also left with the feeling of having collapsed when they seemed to control the game after a troubled start in which a mistake by Gvardiol almost cost them a goal in the first play of the game. A deep pass from the excellent Belgian midfielder Tielemans was enough after fifteen minutes to break the deadlock. little theaterdefensive and leave Rogers and Durán in front of goalkeeper Ortega. Between the two they passed the ball so that the Colombian talent gave the team coached by Unai Emery an advantage. “We had a good first half, but in the second we fell,” Guardiola said at the end, finding an excuse to explain what happened after the break. “Stones couldn’t continue playing and we changed the way we pressed.”
Indeed, injuries plague Pep, but it is not the first time he has found himself in a similar situation. He cannot have two of his defensive pillars, Rubén Dias and Nathan Aké. The goalkeeper Ederson was injured and there has already been abundant literature on the rigors caused by Rodri’s absence, but what is exceptional is the absence of answers to the problems of someone who has always found the formula to solve them. The most formidable team in the Premier is, suddenly, the flattest and most accessible. His second half against Aston Villa portrayed him as incapable of even managing the ball, something unthinkable in a Guardiola team. Rogers, a product of City’s academy, punished him with the second goal with half an hour left and barely scored in a fortunate action by Foden shortly before the three whistles. “We scored a goal, we scored a goal!”, chanted with fine British humor the citizen fans who traveled to Birmingham.
“He will find the solution,” Erling Haaland slipped when he was asked about Guardiola after the game. “He has always done it,” the Norwegian striker completed in an act of faith that is also based on self-criticism. “We have to work even harder,” he prescribed before returning to Manchester. Haaland scored ten goals in the first five days. Since then, since Rodri was injured, he has scored three goals in twelve league appearances. And yet Guardiola, who expects reinforcements in January or at least hopes to recover some pieces, believes. “We conceded the goals that we didn’t used to concede before, and we didn’t score the goals that we used to score before. In football there is never just one reason, there are always many factors. “I have incredible confidence in these kids, some of them have incredible pride and the desire to do it, and we have to do it, I have to find a way to, sooner or later, step by step, come back,” assesses the coach.
Getting back on their feet is the goal of a renowned champion, battered by so many consecutive blows that this Sunday could leave them twelve points behind the lead if Liverpool win on their visit to Tottenham. Meanwhile, Guardiola’s gestures portray a troubled man kneeling on the ground, putting his hands to his head, rubbing his cheeks while collecting lost glances or smashing water bottles against the ground.
