'They lost their charm': Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker point out two key reasons behind Manchester City's downfall
Alan Shearer, Gary Lineker and Micah Richards believe Premier League champions Manchester City's slump in form is down to a lack of pace and intensity.
speaking in The rest is footballthe couple, along with the former Manchester City defender Mica Richards – identified potential problems for pep guardiolaThe team in trouble, who just won one I play in 10.
“Now one win in ten. There's nothing wrong with them, they've just completely lost their mojo at this point,” Lineker said.
Richards And he added: “I was at the game and you know that when you watch it on television you look for certain things or something very different. I think they do well with the ball until the final third.
“When we talked about City in previous seasons, they kept the ball and then found a way to score.
“When Kevin De Bruyne “He passed it to (Erling) Haaland, previously, he would have scored that and they could have gotten a second and a third.”
And although Ilkay Gundogan suggested his side could be lack of confidence Following their 2-0 loss to Juventus on Wednesday, Richards does not believe that will be the case.
“I wouldn't say it's confidence looking at them,” he said. “Teams are preparing differently against them.
“(Teams) are saying 'ok, we know they don't have the legs like they used to, let's target that area, sit a little deeper and hit them on the counterattack because they can't deal with it' right now.
“I think it's on both extremes. They don't score and they give up a lot of chances. Sometimes in previous seasons they could get away with Kyle WalkerThe pace of recovery. “At the moment it seems too easy to play against them.”
Lineker added: “Since the beginning of November, they have conceded more goals, 21, in all competitions than any other team in Europe's big five leagues. I never dreamed in a million years that something like that could be said about a Pep side. of Guardiola”.
Man City are 22nd in the Champions League standings, just one point clear of the elimination zone.
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They have two games after Christmas to secure a place in the play-offs.
“Can you imagine if they didn't make it to the next round and were eliminated?” -Shearer asked.
“The next opponent is Paris Saint Germain. What a story it would be if they were eliminated!”
Speaking about what has changed at Man City in recent weeks, Lineker also theorized what was going on.
He said: “That energy to win the ball back immediately when they lose it, the high pressing, that dynamic pressing they do, trying to win it back in five or seven seconds, being on top of you, I don't see that at the moment.
“There is a lot more space in midfield, obviously we know that Rodri won't play, which is a big mistake, but obviously it will be in his head a little bit.
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“We know what the shape is like. They've lost that spark and the energy levels have gone down.
“I saw Pep speak at his press conference and he said it's a (bad) run, but how they've played so well in the previous six seasons it's more interesting and fascinating how they've kept it up for so long. A bad patch is much more easy to explain.”
Although Guardiola insisted his team will overcome their slump, Lineker added it was an “interesting test” for the coach.
“This is a different type of test,” he said.
Shearer said what alarmed him most was the “lack of legs in midfield”.
“Recovery is one of its biggest problems, with Bernard Silva and (Ilkay) Gundogan, you lack intensity,” he added.
Manchester City will face PSG at the Parc des Princes in January for their penultimate Champions League match, before hosting Club Brugge at home.
They also host Manchester United at the Etihad this weekend for Ruben Amorim's first Manchester derby before a tricky trip to Villa Park to face Aston Villa the following weekend.
