PREVIEW: Can Manchester City get back to winning ways? | OneFootball

For only the second time in his nine years at Manchester City, Pep Guardiola finished the 2024/25 season without a major trophy. After a summer of big investment, they’re now in a better spot now to compete for honours this time round, but there are still questions hanging over a squad which is in the crossroads between its past and future.

Community Sheild at the very start of the campaign aside, last season was one with far more downs than ups for a club who have made winning silverware their M.O. since their manager took charge in 2016.

In that time, they’ve won the Premier League in all but three seasons, four League Cups, two FA Cups, one UEFA Super Cup, one FIFA Intercontinental Cup (then known as the Club World Cup) and most importantly one UEFA Champions League trophy, which happened to come sandwiched in a treble.

So, last season was something of a shock to the system. Between October 30th and December 26th, the club won only one out of 13 games, including a run of five consecutive defeats. They lost in the fourth round of the League Cup, were eliminated from the Champions League before the round of 16 even kicked off, finished third in the Premier League (Guardiola’s lowest finish since his very first season in 2016/17) and, to put a fitting cherry on the cake, they lost the FA Cup final against Crystal Palace. They didn’t fare much better in the Club World Cup, either, after an unceremonious dump from the competition’s round of 16 against Al Hilal.

It’s not a huge surprise, then, that the club have responded by bringing in a plethora of new exciting players, some of whom have already impressed at the aforementioned Club World Cup. Furthermore, the return of Ballon d’Or winner Rodri, his return on the horizon after his ACL injury ruled him out of almost the entirety of last season, can only be a positive.

Things are looking up for The Citizens. But, with Liverpool and Arsenal strengthening alongside them, there’s still a large dose of uncertainty about the whole thing, and while they’re in a better spot than they were 12 months ago, calling them title-favourites would probably be a stretch too far.

Big signings making big promises

As already mentioned, Manchester City responded to their subpar season with a typical ruthless streak in the transfer market.

They wasted no time, either. Of the six signings made so far, four were made in time for the Club World Cup in June. As the Scott Carson replacement in the third-in-command goalkeeping spot, Marcus Bettinelli didn’t make the pitch. However, the other three all impressed.

Tijjani Reijnders’ £48 million pound move made up perhaps the most significant of those early arrivals. One big cause of City’s downturn last season was the absence of Rodri, without whom the club was left without an out and out holding midfielder. Ilkay Gündoğan and Mateo Kovačić subsequently had to work together to fill that void, but the arrangement was rather suboptimal. Even when Nico arrived, Guardiola favoured his elder statesmen.

Now, with Reijnders added to the mix, City have even more cover in case a similarly disastrous injury strikes. The beauty of the Dutchman is that he’s much more than just a holding midfielder, spending much of last season playing as a number eight for AC Milan. He thrived there, too: 20 goal contributions in 54 appearances is nothing to shake a stick at. His brace during a preseason friendly against Palermo wasn’t a bad way of introducing himself to his new club, either.

Rayan Aït-Nouri (signed for £32 million) also impressed during the Club World Cup and his signing marks the first true left back City have brought in since 2018. Rayan Cherki also left an impression from both his link up play with Phil Foden and his goal against Al Ain.

It’s Cherki who has perhaps done the most to adhere himself to his new fans. After losing in the Europa League quarter-finals to Manchester United last season while still at Lyon, the French international said: “I’m here [at Manchester City] to win all games. I don’t like when Manchester United won the game against Lyon because I am a Lyonnais. Now I am waiting for the game [against United to] kill them.” Quite the promise.

Since then, City have signed former youth keeper James Trafford for £27 million, likely resulting in the exit of Stefan Ortega Moreno as a domino effect. They’ve also acquired the 18-year-old Norwegian talent Sverre Nypan for £13 million.

With such a variety in their signings, it’s hard not to see the positives. However, the incoming deals don’t tell the full story on their own.

Who gets cut?

The issue is that their sales thus far have been scarce. Guardiola is a manager famed for his love of a small squad (“I don’t want that [a bigger squad],” he said after City beat Bournemouth 3-1 in May. “I don’t want to leave five or six players in the freezer. I don’t want that. I will quit. Make a shorter squad, I will stay.”).

But, as of now, only Kevin De Bruyne, Carson, Vitor Reis and Jack Grealish have left from the squad he had at his disposal last season. Of those, two departed for free, while Grealish and Reis are only on loan at Everton and Girona respectively. Yan Couto, Máximo Perrone and Kyle Walker have also been sold, however all three were already on loan away from the club.

There are players linked with exits. As mentioned, the arrival of Trafford likely means Ortega will leave; Manuel Akanji has spent the summer linked with a move to Galatasaray; Nottingham Forest have been linked with both James McAtee (whose signing appears to be imminent) and Rico Lewis; Ederson’s future has been left in doubt after recent links with Gianluigi Donnarumma; Savinho could be on his way to Tottenham Hotspur; one player will also be loaned to Lyon as part of the deal to sign Cherki.

But, as of now, all of those players still play for Manchester City. The reality is that this is a squad looking rather bloated and in need of sales.

The 10th season under Guardiola

Approaching his 10th season at the helm (and with Thomas Frank leaving Brentford), Guardiola is the Premier League’s longest serving manager by nearly four years.

In the middle of their poor run of form last season, he put pen to paper on a deal to keep him at the club until 2027, but it was during that barren spell that questions over his future were asked for the first time since underwhelming in his maiden campaign.

All indicators suggest that City’s board – under the supervision of new director of football Hugo Viana – are still happy with Guardiola. However, if they don’t return to winning ways (or if the squad doesn’t get trimmed, assuming he wasn’t deploying some hyperbole following the Bournemouth win), it will be interesting to see just how strong the foundations of the Premier League’s longest running managerial dynasty really are – and whether Guardiola himself wants to keep going.

An interesting ‘preseason’

With the club playing 61 matches last season, City have opted for a much smaller preseason than usual. There was no tour abroad, and officially their only friendlies have been a 1-0 win behind closed doors against Preston North End and a 3-0 win away at Palermo.

So, their four matches in the Club World Cup functioned as something of a de facto preseason.

There were positives: big wins against Juventus and Al Ain left real promise. Savinho and Jérémy Doku both found the net, which answered a big critique of the pair last season. Foden notched four goal contributions and all three new signings impressed.

But there were cracks. Cheap goals were given away against Juventus and there were warning signs as early as the 2-0 win against Wydad, where an absurdly highline allowed the Moroccan side to create plenty of chances which they ultimately couldn’t take.

The loss against Al Hilal was a real disappointment after a promising group stage performance, and was another example of what was seen throughout much of the less fruitful periods last season: City dominated possession but allowed chances and were punished. In that game, Al Hilal scored from all but one of their shots on target.

While there were positives from the tournament, it’s still evident that there’s plenty of room for improvement in the defensive department, and it’s interesting that the club haven’t signed a new right back after relying upon Lewis and Matheus Nunes throughout much of last season. Pair that with an ageing, injury prone cohort of centre halves, and there are certainly some worries about whether City can be tight enough at the back to compete with Liverpool and Arsenal.

Player to watch: Phil Foden

Last season was the first noticeable drop in form from Foden (certainly in a City shirt) since he became a regular in 2020.

In the 2023/24 season, when City lifted their fourth consecutive Premier League trophy, Foden won the PFA Player of the Season award, but last term, he registered only nine league goal contributions in 28 appearances. He often found himself playing second fiddle to Savinho and Doku, such was the diminishment of his returns and performances.

However, with De Bruyne having departed, this campaign could be the perfect opportunity for Foden to find his feet after a tumultuous season. He impressed at the Club World Cup, scoring three and assisting one in four games, and if he can bring that into the coming season, it could really help transform City’s prospects.

Key signing: Tijjani Reijnders

It’s the versatility of Reijnders that makes him so valuable to Manchester City. One of the necessities which comes with a small squad is that the players in it can perform in a variety of roles, and Reijnders is capable of just that.

At Milan last season, he played 11 times as a number 10, 33 times as a number eight and nine times as a holding midfielder. At the Club World Cup, he played two of his three appearances as the latter, filling in for a still relatively unfit Rodri, and he looked every bit an archetypal Guardiola player.

Against Juventus, for example, he played all 90 minutes, took 100 touches, completed 95% of his passes, took four shots, created two chances and regained possession four times.

He can do it all, and that will make him a thoroughly useful option to play in any midfield role required of him.

Can they fight for the title?

Last season’s pursuit of a fifth consecutive Premier League season ended in disaster, but there’s plenty to be optimistic about for Manchester City going into the new campaign.

All of their signings (who have played) have impressed, Foden appears to be turning his form around, Savinho and Doku are scoring goals, and they still have Erling Haaland after all.

But looming over everything is a worrisome defence which conceded six goals in four Club World Cup games and 44 in 38 Premier League outings last season: the worst out of the top four.

Couple that with the fact they’re competing against a Liverpool side who look to have gone from strength to strength with the additions of Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, as well as an Arsenal side which now has an out and out number nine in Viktor Gyökeres, and all of a sudden there’s doubt again.

Manchester City have made steps in the right direction. They should certainly be concerned if they come away from this season trophyless again, but not winning the Premier League shouldn’t be viewed as an abject failure.

For the first season in quite some time, they’re definitely not the favourites.