Pep Guardiola is discovering the meaning of “crisis” at Manchester City. It is a new sensation for the 53-year-old, who has transformed the fortunes of all the clubs he has coached and influenced football like no other in modern football. But cracks are beginning to appear in his empire at the Etihad.

Saturday’s 2-1 Premier League defeat at Brighton saw Guardiola suffer a fourth successive defeat for the first time in his career as a senior manager, a run stretching back to 2008 when he started at Barcelona. Brighton’s victory also marked City’s first four-game losing streak since 2006, two years before Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan and his Abu Dhabi-backed billions took over the club.

Tottenham, Bournemouth, Sporting CP and Brighton have beaten City in the space of 10 days, albeit in three different competitions, not quite the “four in a row” their fans boasted about since they won their fourth game in a row. Premier League title last season.

It is always dangerous to dismiss a great champion and announce the beginning of his decline, but it affects everyone, regardless of the sport. The problem with the end of an era is that it is almost impossible to predict. The signs only become clear when you look back and everything seems obvious. But if Guardiola were to take a look over his shoulder in recent months, the signs will be there.

“Today at the press conference they asked me if it was the end of an era,” Guardiola told reporters after the defeat at Brighton. “I know people want that. I have smelled it for many, many years. What we have done in these years, people have said is very difficult, but if someone wanted to beat us, that will happen because in the next 50 years “We are not going to win all the Premier League. It’s impossible.”

In isolation, the obstacles that have fallen on City would not be enough to destabilize the team and raise doubts about their ability to recover. But once you start accumulating them, the pressures and distractions of each of them suddenly seem overwhelming.

The off-field battle against the Premier League’s 115 charges of breaching financial regulations (City vehemently deny all of them) has been a constant cloud over the club for months; one that has impacted their ability to attract new players to the Etihad. Because? Because no top player would risk signing for a club facing potentially unprecedented financial penalties, a massive points deduction or even expulsion from the Premier League.

The announcement in October that Txiki Begiristain will step down as director of football next summer after 13 years at the club was also a blow to Guardiola, who has worked closely with his close friend and former Barcelona teammate during his time as City coach. . City announced that Begiristain will be replaced by Sporting CP’s Hugo Viana, but his departure has raised further questions over Guardiola’s future beyond the end of his contract, which expires next June.

These problems are the slow, ominous drumbeat heard in the background, but events on the ground are now turning up the volume to an uncomfortable level.

It is too simplistic to attribute all of City’s problems to the loss of the defensive midfielder Rodriafter suffering a season-ending cruciate ligament injury against Arsenal in September. But the 28-year-old, who was recently crowned the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner, is a hugely important figure for City and the stats back him up.

Since the start of the 2023-24 season, and until the match against Arsenal, Rodri played 53 games for City in all competitions and lost only one: the FA Cup final against Manchester United. When Rodri plays, his winning percentage is 73.6%; without it, it drops to 58.3%.

However, City won six and drew one of the seven games immediately following Rodri’s injury, so they found a way to play without the Spanish international. But injuries to other key players such as Kevin De Bruyne, Juan Piedras, Manuel Akanji, Ruben Dias, Jack Grealish and Jeremy Doku They have also been hit hard this season.

play

Is Manchester City’s Rodri replacement hiding in his own backline?

Janusz Michallik says Joško Gvardiol has all the attributes to succeed in the role of Rodri with the Ballon d’Or winner injured.

The city is arguably paying the price for downloading forward Julian Alvarez to Atlético de Madrid in the summer without replacing him. Having only signed the winger Savinhoof the partner club Girona, and former midfield captain Ilkay Gundogan This summer, City failed to replenish their squad sufficiently, leaving them with a smaller number of first-team players than others in the Premier League.

Added to this is the fact that several key figures in Guardiola’s team are reaching the end of their careers: De Bruyne (33), Kyle Walker (34), Mateo Kovacic (30), Gündogan (34), Bernard Silva (30), and Ederson (31) will need to be replaced sooner rather than later.

One of the factors in Manchester United’s alarming decline following Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013, after 13 Premier League titles in 20 years, was the age of their squad and the club’s inability to plan ahead for replacements. by Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Michael Carrick and Paul Scholes.

The United team selected by Ferguson for his last home game as manager had an average age of 27.54 years; The starting XI in City’s defeat at Brighton this weekend had an average age of 25.72. Although the figure is skewed by the presence of two 19-year-olds in Rico Lewis and debutant in the Premier League Jahmai Simpson-Pusey.

Man City and Guardiola are fighting fires on several fronts, on and off the field, and the impact is shown in their recent results. But they have too much quality to discard them. They are just five points behind leaders Liverpool and must travel to Anfield on December 1, so City can still salvage their season.

“When the players return, I have no doubt that we will return to our best level,” Guardiola said after the defeat at Brighton. But for the first time since he joined City, and perhaps for the first time in his coaching career, Guardiola could be trying to convince himself and his players of that message as much as he is trying to prove it to everyone else.