Guardiola now unleashes a blessing as Man City lose out in the embarrassing defeat to Aston Villa

This is now the most extreme crash in Premier League history. The best football team this league has ever seen has now lost nine out of 12 games and we haven’t seen anything in that time to suggest their manager has any idea how to change their fortunes. They were embarrassingly bad and the fact that Rodri isn’t the only reasonable excuse only makes the embarrassment worse for a manager whose squad is worth £1.19 billion.

During this terrible run we’ve all been happy with the idea of ​​Pep Guardiola turning things around because he’s Pep Guardiola, but the more we see of this shadow of the champion, the more we’re convinced that fresh thinking and ideas are needed A change in mindset that 99 times out of 100 comes from a change in manager.

A top-class Guardiola is a one-in-100 anomaly, but by his own admission he doesn’t have the “energy” to manage another club after Manchester City. Just as most of his players ignore it, he does too, sometimes Firing him would be an incredibly brave step From a club that owes him everything, it now looks like a favor to a man who insists he will not resign and who is at a low point, leading a team that has given up has.

The opening goal is far more about Aston Villa than City. Youri Tielemans took the ball under pressure before making one of the passes of the season. Morgan Rogers timed his run perfectly before unselfishly passing the ball to Jhon Duran. It was direct football at its most devastating. Under normal circumstances, City’s part in this would hardly merit a mention, but in these extraordinary times we are programmed to expect and focus on mistakes as they continue to cost Guardiola’s side.

Tielemans should not have played the pass and Rogers should have either been offside or his run should have been tracked. We suspect that if, as expected, it had been Mateo Kovacic on Tielemans and John Stones on Rogers, rather than the other way around, one or possibly both players would have been stopped. With Stones jumping out of defense, Kovacic had to run back to cover him and both were two meters away from where they needed to be. It was perfection from Aston Villa, but perfection wouldn’t have been enough if the City players had done their job.

City dominated possession in the first half but that played into Villa’s hands. As Guardiola admitted earlier this month, “every team is better than us after losing balls and allowing turnovers,” and Villa are among the best there is when they turn the ball over. Almost every time they caught the ball or City let them have the ball, there were four or five Villa players running into the City defense and only a better decision or a more precise pass stopped them from extending their lead.

The city’s fragility was highlighted as many Villa Park guests were still taking their seats as Duran went one-on-one with Stefan Ortega and saw his tame effort saved after John McGinn pounced on a dawdling Josko Gvardiol. From the resulting corner, Ortega deflected a ball off his line and then Amadou Onana headed over from another corner. Three huge chances for Villa in just under two minutes.

In the second half Villa decided to take control. A team that didn’t entirely actively avoid possession, but certainly wasn’t too bothered by it, realized City wouldn’t be a threat no matter how they approached the game and thought they’d have more fun with the ball. And isn’t it?

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Tielemans took the piss out of the Old Men Of Manchester City. Kovacic and Ilkay Gündogan made life easier for him with their leaden boots, but the Belgian was excellent in his more advanced role in front of Amadou Onana and Boubacar Kamara, playing one-touch passes to Rogers and Duran when possible and taking the ball in the Half turn with He raised his head and looked for runners behind him. He slid. If a playmaker performed better this season, it must have been something very special.

Rogers was also at the forefront of City’s taunts, roaming at will through the heart of Guardiola’s midfield and peaking with his driving runs before doubling Villa’s lead. He picked up the ball deep in his own half, pushed Kyle Walker aside – ironically, he came on as a half-time substitute for the Stones to strengthen City, despite being the poster boy for their problems this season – and then left Kovacic behind, before taking a one-two with McGinn and his early shot to give Ortega no chance.

Duran led the line brilliantly, the midfield was collectively and individually outstanding and the defense wiped out an incredibly isolated Erling Haaland with absolute ease. Let’s get it right, Villa was so, so good. But Manchester City were terrible and even their late consolation somehow managed to highlight their downfall when Phil Foden – last season’s Premier League player – scored his first goal of the season.

Their confidence has dropped to the point where they make mistakes, can no longer make simple passes and are comically toothless in attack, and if the team played under a different manager there would also be accusations that they had lost their equipment and dressing rooms have lost. They stopped running.

What is the only answer that has ever been given to this? Fire the manager. We’ve been told that can’t and won’t happen, and that’s fine, but when we look at Guardiola and his players we can’t help but think it would be a favor for everyone involved.