Man City Transfers: Pep to splash the cash after latest defensive disaster | OneFootball

English Premier League

Pep Guardiola is hitting the January transfer market after Man City's struggles

Man City are a shorter price to go down than they are to win the Premier League, which has prompted Pep Guardiola to go big in the January transfer window.

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At 2-0 up and cruising, we were ready to start penning the Manchester City comeback story, but Brentford's late comeback again exposed the problems for Pep Guardiola - and will likely prompt a big splurge in the January transfer window.

City have been a shambles defensively and although they're closing in on a couple of defenders, reports suggest Frankfurt's prolific forward Omar Marmoush is on the verge of joining the struggling Premier League champions.

City had beaten Leicester and West Ham, but could fend off Brentford and now they're sixth in the Premier League table, 12 points behind leaders Liverpool having already lost six games and looking a shadow of their usual selves.

City are now 25/1 to win the Premier League title and more relevant now are the chances of finishing in the top four at 4/7 or heaven forbid only having to settle in the top six at 2/9

Perhaps most telling is the fact that laughably City are a shorter price at 12/1 to get relegated than they are to win the league! That does show though how far they've fallen.

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Man City to make transfer market moves

Conceding 29 goals already after just 34 all last season, City are just 15th in xG allowed when they usually top that metric, such is the mess they're in defensively seemingly all down to missing Rodri.

Pep has seen enough now, and that means he's diving into the transfer market to bring in reinforcements to help try and salvage this season and more importantly lay some foundations for a reboot next year.

"At 2-0 we had to close it out, but we don't have a specific player to defend a result in the box - we have to do it with the ball, create and control in the final third," Guardiola said after Brentford.

And to combat that, City are looking to bring in two central defenders in Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis.

Brazilian side Palmeiras have agreed on a deal in principle with City to sell them highly-rated 19-year-old defender Reis for an initial fee of just under £30m, with Lens' Khusanov set to arrive from Lens in a deal worth around £33m.

Omar Marmoush

17 appearances for Frankfurt this season

Goals

15

Assists

9

Shots

77

Shots per 90

4.8

Shots on Target

36

Shots on Target per 90

2.2

Chances Created

36

Chances Created per 90

2.2

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They'll join an expensively assembled defence including £65m Ruben Dias, £77m Josko Gvardiol and £41m Nathan Ake that you could argue Guardiola should be doing more with even without the often injured John Stones.

It's at the other end of the field where City could make the biggest splash though, with Sky Germany reporting a £60m deal for Frankfurt's Omar Marmoush is on the verge of being agreed.

The Egyptian, who has been linked with replacing Mohamed Salah at Liverpool, has scored 15 Bundesliga goals and registered 9 assists this season - only Salah has more goal contribustions in Europe's to five leagues.

City hope Marmoush can fill a void left by Julian Alvarez in offering a goal threat alternative to the static Erling Haaland, and with £100m man Jack Grealish offering precious little in terms of goals in what must be one of the biggest transfer errors Guardiola has made.

Milan favourites for wantaway Walker

Kyle Walker was not included for the second straight game at Brentford after Guardiola reveals that the 34-year-old wants to leave Man City.

He's turned down a mega-money move for Saudi Arabia and his preferred option is thought to be Italian giants AC Milan.

They're also favourites to sign Man Utd forward Marcus Rashford though and in a strange twist regulations mean they could only sign Rashford OR Walker as due to Brexit they only have one space left for non-EU player.

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