It's fair to say that Manchester City are no longer operating anywhere near the level they were a couple of years ago. They were a major disappointment last season, and despite predictions they would be back at their best come the start of this season, they seem to have carried the same issues into the current campaign.
Their attack is no longer the force it once was. Much of that could be down to the continued absence of Sergio Aguero, but it's clear they are not firing on all cylinders.
Then you have the defence. Despite spending over £400million on defenders since arriving at The Etihad, Pep Guardiola still struggles to get the best out of his back four.
Those struggles were taken to new heights in the embarrassing 5-2 loss to Leicester City last week, with his side once again outplayed by Leeds United yesterday.
There are some major issues that need to be fixed, with the addition of Ruben Dias unlikely to be enough to solve all of their problems.
Some feel that Guardiola could do with some outside help. Appearing on beIN Sports, Richard Keys, a man only really known for his awful opinions, feels that the Spaniard should recruit Sam Allardyce to solve the side's defensive issues.
"He could bring Sam Allardyce in on a temporary basis"@richardajkeys offers Pep Guardiola some advice on how he could fix @ManCity's leaky defence.#beINPL #PL #LEEMCI 📺 HD11 pic.twitter.com/YcapARFliE
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS_EN) October 3, 2020
Gray: It's a strange one, it really is a strange one. I can't understand why Pep can't get his head around it.
Maybe he's just a coach who loves to coach positive football? Maybe he has another coach that does the back four.
Keys: Well he's got 60 people around him.
Gray: Well there you go. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't work a lot with the back four defensively.
Keys: He could go watch Roy Hodgson work or he could bring Sam Allardyce in on a temporary basis. Any of these guys can shape teams defensively.
Guardiola and Big Sam, what could possibly go wrong? We would pay good money to see this one come to fruition.
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