Haaland FUMES as City draw | Players face FIGHT for their futures | Transfer special
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Hello, welcome to the Talking City podcast coming to you from the Manchester Evening News. Merry Christmas and in the true spirit of Christmas, City gifted another team another point at the Etihad on Boxing Day. My name's Joe Bray, joined by Simon Bykovski. First of all, Simon, good Christmas. Yeah, very good, thanks. Joe, how was yours? All good, yeah, and I was probably better for not being at the Etihad on Boxing Day because it looked

It didn't look great, but it also looked just the same of everything we've seen over the last few weeks. Yeah, I sort of wish I hadn't gone, really, because I reckon I could have had the day at home, written the match report blind and still kind of got it spot on. Sort of like, yeah, they did all the same things that they've done recently to mess up. I mean, it was a better performance than Aston Villa. It doesn't take a lot, though.

No, no. Do you know what? It was one of those games where, I mean, we spoke to Manu Akanji after the game and he kind of said, you know, this kind of game happens every season and it's usually against Everton or someone like that where, you know, you can see it. They have most of the game. They don't quite do enough and the other team,

to maximise their chances and, you know, it ends in a draw and it should be a City win. But usually City have sort of won 11 of the last 12 rather than only won one of the last 12. So sort of adding into the current run, it kind of meant that even, you know, if you are slightly positive about the performance, the result is still a negative performance.

And yeah, that's fine to say it happens every now and again, but when it happens 12 times out of the last 13, it's

It's not so much of an excuse, I don't think, really, because, yeah, it does happen and it does happen against Everton. And this time of year, you often get that. Was it last year Everton or a year before Everton took a point? It was a treble year, yeah. Yeah, so I remember that. Was it Damari Gray, that really good goal? It does happen and it's not a surprise. But when it's one after another after another and they're making the same mistakes again, I'm not sure that excuse washes as much.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's one of those things like, you can say it's one of those things if you've won all your games before them, but when you haven't, it's an improvement on a diabolical sort of what's gone before, but it's not much to write home about. Should we start with the positives? Better performance in Villa, as you say,

off to a good start, Bernardo gets a goal, maybe a little bit of fortune going City's way with a deflection. You think, right, you can kick on now. Is there something that City can cling on to with that and the way that they started that first half? Forgetting the goal because that was sort of a one attack, one goal thing, but I got the sense it felt like it was an opportunity to kick on in that first half at least. I think so, but I think they've just been here so many times and they just kind of don't kick on enough. Yeah.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just seeing too many negatives, but it feels like... Do you know what? I feel like there are too many negatives at times. At Aston Villa, the team came out and everyone was like, what a terrible team. Why has he picked all those players? It's sort of like racking your brain, thinking like, what?

Is it anyone in particular? Is there someone not playing who should be playing? Is there someone who is playing that shouldn't be playing? And things like that. And then, you know, the team against Everton, it's like, right, Savino and Doku are back in and everyone likes to see Savino and Doku back in and they start and they're really bright and you think, oh, fantastic. And then there's no end product and you sort of think, oh, right, well, we can sort of see why they didn't start the last game or the game before that. And I don't mean to

pick on those two. It's kind of every player at the minute, bar maybe Phil Foden, you look at and you think, well, I can see why their place in the team isn't secure. I can see why they don't start every week kind of thing because it looks okay, but then it's just not good enough ultimately. You know, Kovacic looked okay back in the team and

Couldn't have been on the bench because he had a virus. Maybe he wouldn't have played anyway, but Kovacic looked okay. But kind of ultimately, they got overrun far too often. Rico Lewis was okay, was fine. Like...

Yeah, just problems everywhere. And, you know, it was one of those things where it used to be at the Etihad, City would go 1-0 up and that would be game over because it would be sort of the prelude to them getting 2 or 3 or 4 or 5. And I feel like every time they have scored recently, it's given the opponents a lift. The opponents have kind of reacted better. Certainly happened in the Derbyshire United when they sort of gave...

United their best patch of the game until the final minutes when they scored. And it kind of happened against Everton again, where they scored and Everton was like, right, how do we get back into it? Rather than City taking control and taking the game away from Everton. Yeah, we've been speaking about the confidence of when they concede one, they concede another.

But actually, when they're scoring one, the heads are weirdly going down as well. And it's like the pressure is on as well. And I mean, we'll talk about the Haaland penalty miss, but looking at it on Amazon, you just thought this is not a man who's going to score this penalty. And that's Erling Haaland who scored penalties for fun and sort of looked keepers in the eye and makes them look silly. But it was the other way around. And I don't...

I think the mentality thing is really growing on the players and they're just so scared of making mistakes and adding to that run that they're not just doing what they've always done, which is just play football. But I mean, like you say, with the team, you look at the bench and you had an unfit Gundogan and a Kevin De Bruyne who's clearly not fit enough to play a part, otherwise he would have started. And that was the only outfield...

sort of senior players that you've got to change the game apart from Makati O'Reilly who he's said he doesn't want to throw in at the moment and then a handful of academy players who haven't played for the first team yet and it just shows how thin the squad is but how few options and I would have thought in this run you would just want to keep rotating and

gives the players as much help as they can get, but they've not got that at the same time. There is a mentality issue, but they've also not got the support with that. And it's one of them where City are sort of pegged back by Everton. Watching match of the day, they literally said on the commentary, I can't see where this City goal is coming from. When have you ever said that about City at the Etihad? Yeah, yeah. I mean, it certainly felt like that at Villa the other day where it was like they're just not creating. And it...

Yeah, again, it's just disappointing because it started off so brightly. And like Savinho, for all he flattered to deceive, did win City the penalty, which should have been enough. But when you've got Haaland missing, it's one of those things City can do 90% of things right, but the extra 10% where it really matters are really, really hurting them at the minute. And they don't seem to have a way of...

of correcting that or, you know, improving that. Because, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. It's just really difficult to see where the improvement is coming because it needs to be like every individual needs to improve in order to get kind of collective improvement. And you can see sort of sparks of it and they need a lot of luck to go their way.

And it just isn't at the minute. But you can't take away from the absences either because as soon as the team arrived and there's no Walker and Grealish or Stones, so there's eight players, eight senior players missing from the team. It's just like a downer from the start. He's just saying, right, here we go again. How is City going to survive this? How are they going to get through this? And it must be draining for the...

the players um you know it must be frustrating for the ones who are constantly missing and for the ones who aren't you know all of that 11 must have looked at the bench and thought yeah it's on us today we've got to do something because there's nothing else coming you've got two senior players who are ill and you've got the rest kids so basically it's on us and you know

That is part of being a top footballer and it's part of being a footballer at City that you need to embrace that responsibility and have it. But when your confidence is low, when your body's knackered, it's tough. And it feels like City are starting every game thinking, yeah, this is tough. It's tricky. I've been asked quite a lot what's going wrong with City. And you can point to the defensive mistakes, you can point to...

selection decisions and mentality and they're all very valid points I think that's one one half of the big issue and then there's you add sort of the aging squad and any transfer decisions in in hindsight you might look at but there's another 50 percent which all comes back to the injuries if they had a fit squad nobody would talk and would be talking about rebuilds they won't be talking about City being past it City would be far further up the table than they are

And it feels like it's so simple just to say, oh, they're injured. All the players are injured. This is why they're struggling. But it is such a big factor. And like you say, it's not just the players who are injured, it's the players who are playing. They're not playing well because they're playing so much. And it's just a circle that isn't ever ending. And every time, like you say, the squad turn up to a game,

the injury situation has got worse. And I asked Guardiola on Christmas Eve, like, have you been able to work out why there's so many injuries? And he just said, we're not able to train. We can't train. Um,

We can't get the players fit. The players are coming off the massage table without playing any training sessions. They need two or three training sessions normally to get up to speed. They've not got any. They're going into games and then they're getting injured again. And it's that sort of cycle where it's just they're not able to. I think he said there's 100 days of lost training already this season from only his central defenders alone. And he's never had a training session with all four of his players.

centre-backs, which presumably, as we know, he likes to rotate those centre-backs. But if you're having, for example, a practice match, you can practice those different combinations, but you just can't do that in training. So it feels like such a simple excuse. But if you take that away from any player, I think Anna Slott said it,

yesterday on Boxing Day, he was like, look at how far City have fallen because of injuries and suspensions and luck. That can happen to anyone. So yeah, we can analyse all of this and each point is absolutely valid.

Even the transfer mistakes that everyone's pouncing upon and all these players that they've sold that they should be theoretically have kept and be playing in the team. But it all comes back to injuries, I think. And it feels like I'm saying this every week, but when, like you say, Grealish and Walker don't turn up, fans might not have wanted them in the team, but it takes away the options to change it from the bench and give other players rest. And it all has a domino effect from there.

Yeah, I think where the change has come over the past few weeks, I would say, certainly for me, is that it's gone from being predominantly injuries. I did agree with Guardiola that with everyone fit, they would be up there. But I think the longer it goes on and the more you have all of these absences and continued absences and re-absences, you sort of think, well, you know,

a fully fit squad seems like a utopia that's not going to happen. You know, like if Jack Grealish can never get to his best, then why have him in the squad? You need to get someone else. If John Stones can never be fit, then as good as he is when he's fit, he's not worth having in the squad. You need to get someone else who...

who can be. And it's like, you know, there's a load of these situations where so many players in the squad are fighting to prove that they've still got it and they can't show that they've still got it if they're injured all the time. And, you know, City are going to have to make some tough decisions, but it's going to be

you know, borne out by fitness, I think, first and foremost. You know, Pep wasn't sure about Vincent Kompany when he first arrived because Kompany had so many issues and Kompany overcame those to stay for three years and go out on his own terms. It can be done, but how many of these players that aren't contributing at the minute are going to turn it around and, you know, prove that their best days are still ahead of them? Because at the minute, it's not looking like many.

And this is it. The injuries and the fitness means that they don't have that luxury of time to play their way back into form because the form isn't good, so they need to perform now, but they've not got that time and it's tricky. But this run, these 13 games, have meant that fans are starting to ask those questions about Stones, about Grealish, about players that have been so important to City. And then saying, actually, they're getting a bit old and they're starting to be more

more trouble and miss more games than they are contributing and I think they are I've been quite impressed with City fans in the way they've handled this running that if you if you put it on any other fan base it would be a complete disaster I think at the moment with City fans they're quite they acknowledge that they've had a very very good run and there's a lot of mitigating factors but also they're asking pretty fair questions like the ones that you mentioned there of of

players who might start to be weighing a little bit too much on the team and it's it's fair that they're being asked and I think those questions will only grow the more that City struggle but the more they struggle the harder it is for for anything to come out and return quickly to the way it was it feels like every game is digging that hole a little bit deeper yeah and you know as close as we get to the January window you sort of think right well

you've got the confidence to be able to say we can buy for the long term. Whether they find anyone is a different matter, but there's a lot more heads on the chopping block now and with every game that passes than there were in October when they were top of the league and they didn't have these injuries. You can blame the sort of extraordinarily unlucky short-term circumstances, but the longer it goes on, the kind of

the more the club have to have to act.

And it's, I mean, in a short space of time, Sydney have gone from saying, we don't need any more players. We've got a small squad. That is how we operate. We don't need to replace Rodri. We don't need to find a De Bruyne replacement just yet. We're happy with how we are. We don't need to replace Julian Alvarez too. We need a lot more players. And we can't cope with the small squad. And that's just how quickly it's all changed. But it also puts a lot of pressure on the January market. I mean, Pep was talking about transfers after the game, wasn't he? And he said...

We need players for five years, not five months. And I think that's quite an interesting comment because it essentially writes off this season, really, in terms of getting players in. But I also don't think there's any player on the market that can instantly improve City. I think you've got to be looking long term. But it's interesting he said that out loud, which is probably what everybody knew already.

Yeah, well, I think it's just their stance. Even now, they're not a club that wants to be bullied into any moves they don't want to make in the transfer window. They don't want to go and spend £100 million on Bruno Guimaraes because their season has tailed off spectacularly. They could have paid his release clause in the summer and they didn't want to because they didn't think he was worth that money. And as bad as this is, they sort of say, right, well, we want to...

build for the long term. We want to get people in for the long term, not just to take us out of this hole. And with Pep staying until 2027, they can do, because anyone who's coming is not just coming for a stopgap. They're coming for two and a half years with Pep to try and win some trophies. So I think City still feel they're in a strong position

in negotiating for players. They want to talk about the long term because clubs who they want to buy players off will be talking about the short term, saying you're in a real mess. If you want to qualify for the Champions League, you want this player and you're going to have to pay a premium because you need it. I think that's part of City's

to try and say, yeah, yeah, it's the long-term. We only want players who are with us for a few years. And, you know, they always have a long-term view anyway. But it is kind of, it's a luxury that City have with Guardiola staying another two seasons that they can say we want for the long-term. But it's also, they kind of need to say that because, like I say, others will be focusing on the short-term.

i think as well once you see the so-called bigger clubs making those short-term loans and short-term signings it very rarely works i'm thinking arsenal made a couple of midfield signings just for six months and united have started making loans and it's just it never works it never has the impact that you want i think at the sort of top end of the premier league i think you've got to be looking and if someone comes in and hits a ground running great but

If it means they have six months to just get used to the system and then they can try and fight back for the title next season, I think that's probably a smarter move. And City aren't selfish enough or silly enough to think, right, we need to do everything we can to retain this title. If it means you're not going to win the next two or three, I think they'd be...

sort of honest enough to say this one's not our year and then let's have a go next time and attack it that way. And that long-term thinking has done them well enough. I know there are a few gumballs about could they have done more in refreshing the squad sooner, especially in the summer just gone. But I just don't think at the start of the summer anybody was saying that. So I think the circumstances have changed so dramatically that

You can say it in hindsight, but when we were dissecting the transfer window, we were saying, yeah, maybe they could have got a Rodri replacement, they could have got Alvarez, but the players they've got have been good enough and will probably be good enough for another year. They've just had the worst combination of injuries. Yeah, and also, I think it's probably fair to say that they've been a bit hesitant in the transfer window because they've been unsure about Guardiola.

And as much as you can say, it's all about continuity and everything like that. You don't really want like to spend 200, 300 million this summer, this summer just gone. And then Guardiola leave at the end of the season as he was expected to. And as everyone was expecting him to. And then a new manager comes in and he's got a full, he's got a whole squad with none of the players that he's picked. And he,

hasn't got the money to bring in his own players because City have spent it all last summer. So I think there was probably a bit of City sort of saying, right, well, we'll do this. And then Pep said he's closer to leaving than staying. So,

If he does leave at the end of the season, we've got all this money to spend on a new manager, to give to the new managers to say, you can make this squad your own in the same way like they did with Guardiola that brought all this success. So you can say, oh yeah, City pandered to Guardiola and therefore that hindered their...

their efforts in the transfer window, but you're pandering to the best manager in the world because he's the best manager in the world and you want him to stay for longer. And if your team goes to a bad run, the one manager you want to get them out of it is Guardiola. So it's kind of one of those things like, I think they could have spent more in previous transfer windows and won even more trophies, but it's very hard to argue that

against a team that has won this much and it's hard to argue against a manager that has won it all. So it's, yeah, I think there have been issues, but you can see why they've arisen. And if that best manager in the world who's proved people wrong time and time again with a small squad is saying, I don't need any more players, we'll be fine.

you've got to listen to him. You'd be silly not to. And it sounds like he was expecting Oscar Bob, for example, to play a bigger role. He goes and breaks his leg. Rodri is so important. He goes and gets out for the season. De Bruyne,

He remains integral when he's at his best form to how City play. He's been able to play maybe four or five games at the start of the season, a couple of games in the last month. We've not seen these players all at their best. And then you add players like Walker, Foden, all important players last season, just nowhere near the best. It's just a combination of factors, I think. And some of them you might have been able to foresee, but others are genuinely bad luck and

you can cope with maybe one of them, but when it's four or five big issues, it's tricky. And I think everything we've sort of covered with transfers and questioning how they've acted in previous years is absolutely valid. I think all the questions City fans are raising about even the approach they've taken with older players and contracts, absolutely fair. I just always come back to the fact that it's

everything that you do to try and explain this run always comes back to the injuries and maybe as the runs gone on it's got maybe a bit forgotten and it might be easy for me to come back to injuries all the time but it feels like that's that's the thing but i would also point out on the contrary that gradiola is is not saying that anymore he's just looking for solutions he says give me about my players we'll be fine but we've got to do better

In the meantime, let's take a break there and we'll come back and look a little bit more into some of the performances and look ahead to Leicester, which on paper would be a straightforward game for City, but City haven't been doing straightforward games for quite a while. Be back in a second.

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Hello, welcome back to the Talking City podcast. We've been delving into the reasons behind City's bad form which continued with a draw at home to Everton who I think it's been forgotten as well have been playing relatively well and have been very hard to beat. They've kept I think it was five clean sheets in six going into the City game. They've lost one in that run, draws against Chelsea, Arsenal and now City. They look quite good or at least solid at the back and difficult to beat and

I think there's been some criticism of the defending and switching off for the Everton goal, but it was a very, very good finish, wasn't it, Si? It was. It was the finish that Bernardo Silva should have done when he was put in on goal by Foden at 1-0 and two minutes later it's 1-0 rather than 2-0 and that kind of sums up where City are at as well.

But Everton, yeah, five clean sheets in the last six, great. But also, like, Everton, statistically the least clinical team in the Premier League going into that one. And then they pretty much score with the first proper chance, which again is, you know, is what City have done too often this season. And it's just not really good enough. So...

Yeah, it's one of those. It's just like City are sort of everyone's coupon buster, aren't they? If you're the worst finishing team in the league, then never mind because you'll do it against City. If you never keep a clean sheet, never mind because you'll do it against City. That's what they're in at the minute and they just need to get out of it because every team is looking forward to playing them.

It does feel like you just need one chance against City. And it used to be you'd get one chance in a game and if you took it and defended well and got a lot of luck, you might get a point. Now it's if you get one chance...

you'll get a goal and you'll probably get another one after and I mean Everton didn't but it's another time that City have conceded a goal in this run and not had an answer in the response I think it's four times in about 27 goals they've conceded now where they've replied they've still not turned a losing position into any points and they've thrown away quite a lot of winning positions as well it just doesn't speak well for the mentality and

And Haaland's penalty, we discussed it. Haaland didn't look again like scoring. I just thought Pickford got in his head.

and he just didn't look like someone who was confident stepping up to that penalty. But if he doesn't take it, who else does? I quite liked your stat. I think it summed everything up quite well on Twitter where Harlan's been offside twice all season and once was for nodding that header in on the rebound, which he's very good at staying onside, but that one he just summed up the look.

At full-time, he seemed to walk straight down the tunnel. No, he often does quite a lap of honour. He's one of the last to leave. Straight down the tunnel, walks past Pep. The fans are booing the team in general. Just doesn't seem like things are going well for Haaland. And I mean, last week he said it's all on him. He's not been playing well. A lot of us were thinking, well, surely he's not the problem. Suddenly now he said that and he misses that penalty. I'm starting to think...

Does Haaland have a point about his own thing? Could he have been doing better? Is it one goal in seven or something now? He's not scoring. He's not having the chances. He's not having the supply. But you need him to score that penalty. That is a golden chance for him and for City to turn things around. Yeah, not good enough from him. I put him in the same bracket as Guardiola. He might be...

Not at his best, but if you can pick anyone to try and turn things around, then you're going to go with him because he's the best striker in the world still. So it's one of those where he had a bad afternoon and yet you could see the frustration face. Not to defend him too much, but I'm happy with that. I would rather him be out there and going down the tunnel because he's fuming about his performance than...

him not caring and you know he got criticized by some at Anfield when uh he was sort of laughing and joking after the game with with Liverpool players so you can't really win either way when you when you lose him but I sort of I you want him to be hurting that he can't do more to help the team um and certainly when he missed a penalty that that would have given them um you know a

a win you would have thought. He's now averaging a goal, I think, 135 minutes on the pitch for goal, which two months ago it was probably half that. So he is struggling just like the rest of the team. But I still think you keep him in while he's fit.

Yeah, and an angry Haaland is often a Haaland who's going to put three or four goals in the net in a game not too long away. It's just that he's not getting those chances and it sort of leads on to the next question, which is, yeah, you bring back Doko and Savinho. I know one got an assist and one won the penalty, but it felt like, I'll be honest, I didn't watch the game all the way through, I was watching in bits and bobs, but every time they got the ball, you have one winger who goes to the byline and

and either doesn't cross or doesn't find his man in the centre, and one winger who cuts inside and who shoots either and doesn't score or doesn't find his man. And it feels like, in theory, those are brilliant options of different wingers and different attackers, and they'll take the man on and create overloads and stuff, but...

Their end product isn't great. I was looking, they've got, Docky has three goals and four assists this season, Savinho, five assists and no goals. That's in about 40-odd collective appearances. It feels like both of them could be doing better and this is a game where I know they both contributed to a goal and a penalty, but it may be sort of exposed. You need them just to be creating chance after chance and they're just not finding that man in the centre or not finding that shot. Maybe it's the decision-making when they get there.

But I don't know. It feels like City need a bit more from both of them. Yeah, I tweeted about Savino during the match because he really does look like Riyad Mahmood when he sort of moves in with purpose. He's got his old shirt on because he, you know, admires him. And there's a lot of mutual love there. But it's...

Yeah, he's not scored. And I think it's kind of in his head that he's not scored. You know, everyone wants that first goal to get off the mark. I think he's had more shots than any other player in the Premier League has without scoring. But I wouldn't mind him not scoring either if he was picking out the right ball for Haaland or the right ball for someone else to finish. But it's like every single time the...

the option that he could take. He doesn't. And, you know, he is young. He's really young and it takes time to settle in this city team. Where I am struggling a little bit and probably why I'm harsh with him is that, you know, this is a guy who did it last year in La Liga, was one of the best players in Spain, along with Ilkay Gundogan, actually. But, you know, like, Savino was really, really good and he got goals and he got assists at

at tough places to go. So it's not like, oh, this is a step up and he should be finding it more difficult. It should be the same level. So I'm not sure why he's struggling so much to find the right option in the final third because that is kind of ultimately what he's on the pitch to do. Yeah, this is what I'm...

looking at and I like both of them as players I think Doku really excites the fans and can take on a man and he can put balls in the box but he doesn't often find Haaland and surely as a winger in the City team your job is to put a cross in and find Haaland but it's either over his head or in front of him or behind him and

Yeah, you want a bit more of that and that's what City used to do, which is they always knew what the right ball was and it was often a cut back to the midfielder running in. But when you've got Haaland in his first season, they found him all the time. They knew exactly where he was. It's like they've never played with Erling Haaland before.

And there's, I mean, I've got no stats to back this up, but it feels like every cross is just chipped to the back post and it's over Haaland. And I've just got the image of Haaland watching a ball sail over his head and he sighs and stuff. And I feel like I've seen that three or four times a game for the last two or three months. And he must be tearing his hair out. And we know he gets annoyed with stuff like that. He's always on it at himself first and foremost, right?

But he must be annoyed at the lack of service. And I know Guardiola's been changing it around. So sometimes he's got Grealish, sometimes he's got Bernardo on the wings. And you just want a bit of consistency with the type of balls. Even if every single ball was across the six-yard box for Haaland to have a go at, he's going to get it at some point. It looks like they're trying to mix it up, but they're just not on the same wavelength. I don't know if that's too harsh or you've got any sort of evidence around it, those of your own.

or memories of chances that they have found him. But that feels like, especially when I'm at a game and then obviously my role is to do the blogging and I'm looking up and trying to type moves as they go on, they'll get into a position. It's like, oh, over Harland's head again, over Harland's head again, or get into a good position but can't find the striker. It feels like I've written that in our match blogs so many times. Yeah. And it felt particularly acute with Doku in the derby because he was kind of moving in

to play a bit more centrally and had the ball in a number of good positions. And every time Haaland made that run in behind the defence, the ball was just cut out sort of every time, hit the first defender, hit the first defender. And you sort of thought, you know, it was one of those where you sort of thought, well, it's surely more made for Grealish if

you know, that's what he's being asked to do. But then again, Grealish, you know, hasn't done enough, like we were saying earlier, to show that he should be starting every week and he was gone from the squad again this time. So it does feel, and again, you know, talk about the transfer record, 54 million on Doku two years ago. That is under increasing scrutiny because, you know, everyone thought that this was,

Winger would improve and I don't think he has I don't think he's improved really if you think back to sort of when we saw his second game at West Ham he sort of took responsibility got them back into the game and won them the game I'm not sure he's played better in now 18 months at the club so

Was it worth 54 million to bring him in? I'm not sure you can say it has been at the minute. So both Toku and Savino are having to justify their place in the team and they've not got four players

Premier League titles, six, eight Premier League titles to fall back on. So they should be the future of the team. But at the minute, you look at them and you can't say for certain that they are. And, you know, that is being ultra critical. But when you look at the team, they have to be doing more, just like everyone else has to be doing more. I think this is the sort of the symptoms or the result of all the bad things

the bad form is that nobody is above scrutiny anymore and including those players that you mentioned and the transfer fees and immediately the 53 million on Mateus Nunes brings to mind as well as another another questionable one and all of those things are now

they've got a body of work now where you can judge them on and you think, are they worth that? And that might be another conversation for another podcast. But what I would offer in Doku's defence is in the first half, he drifts inside, which he doesn't always do. And he plays a ball that I've rarely seen him do to Bernardo Silva. And Bernardo's in the box and scores a goal. You just want him to do that more and make those right decisions more.

and mix it up and work with the players around him. It feels like he's a one-man band and to an extent, Savino sometimes too. And the rest of the team are waiting to see what he does rather than knowing intuitively what he does. And that's what City have always done. Everyone's known where each other will be and they've not even had to look to play the pass because they know Gundogan's running into the box or Bernardo or De Bruyne or Foden. And it's not quite the same when you've got wingers who...

they have to keep their defender on their toes and sometimes go one way, sometimes another. But it feels like Erling Haaland is always guessing rather than just running to a position and knowing exactly where to be. So it was refreshing for Doku to play that ball to Bernardo, but you just want to see more of it. And I think fans are starting to question a little bit exactly like you say the

just sort of what they offer to the team and how often they do their job, which is ultimately to find the person in the box to score the goal. Like you say, you don't mind Savino not

not scoring goals if he's getting assists all the time, but he's just not quite doing that. He might have had another sort of half assist for winning the penalty, but I always just think you want more from them. I don't know what the solution is on the wings, whether it's both of them or one and someone like Grealish or Bernardo or Foden on the other side or a range of things. I don't know what the solution is, but I don't think yesterday we saw a sort of a solution going forward for the coming games.

A quick question, it might well have been answered yesterday. Kevin De Bruyne doesn't come on for a long time. He started four games in a row. Now he's not, he's got two games on the bench. He wasn't used at Villa. Is that just fitness? Has he been overused? Has Pep said anything about what he is? Was it illness, did you say? Yeah, Pep said he's had a virus that kept him on the bench for Villa and kept him on the bench yesterday. It was quite weird because he sort of wasn't really even warming up yesterday.

and City fans started chanting his name he was kind of sat on the bench in a way that he does when he's on the bench but he's not really got any intention of playing and then suddenly he was stripping off and coming on so it was like oh right okay yeah and he played like someone who wasn't really fully with it it wasn't

It wasn't like he came on and rescued the game. It was kind of more of what we saw in the Derby where he wasn't fully on it. So, yeah, I wouldn't read too much into that.

One further defence of Doku and Savino having hammered them is that, you know, you talk about lack of training and City haven't had training. So they're not going to be on Haaland's wavelength as much if they can't train together any other time. And I think the best City team of the Guardiola era, I think people would agree, is the 17-18 Centurions team.

um who were coming into games a with nobody really playing low blocks against them because uh they'd come forth and been beatable the previous year but also they'd had three weeks in in the summer of 2017 no major tournament everyone there to work on all things on the training pitch and get the fundamentals there and city uh have not had that this year and they've not had it all year so i

If it looks like they're not on the same wavelength, that's probably a good indicator as to why. And they can't use it as an excuse, but it is a factor, I would say. Absolutely. And that literally answers the sort of question and criticism that I raised, which is you need that time. And it comes back to what Guardiola says about training and injuries, and they haven't had the time to do that. And it feels like in the last couple of weeks where they've had

more of a gap between games he's prioritised giving them time off which they probably need just as much as time on the training ground so it's a

I also think it's worth saying I think they can both still turn things around and build on what they've done in their early City careers and do very well. And it must be very, very hard at the moment, especially with all the pressure on to every decision has to be right. There's so much pressure on the attackers as well as the defenders. And they're young players as well in relatively new countries. So, yeah, it's not a full-on hammering of the pair of them. You just look at them and you're like, you two are so talented.

you've got to be able to do more and you've got the best striker in the world who's waiting for that ball.

All you've got to do is play it across. It feels so simple for us, but I'm well, well aware that it is far from simple. And even the best team in the world, which City have been, can suffer from confidence issues and have that pressure on their shoulders as well. Si, before we go, the January transfer window is three or four days away. We know City are not necessarily interested in Martin Zibamendi and Bruno Guimaraes.

That suggests they're not, they might still be looking for a defensive midfielder, but they felt like the two standout candidates. If they were to only sign one player, for example, should it be that they focus all in on a new midfielder? Is that number six, number eight? Is that another position? What would you want to see if we could only see one arrival in January? I think I would sign a centre-back in January.

I think obviously having no Rodri is a huge hole, but having probably one fit centre-back out of four is a huge hole. And I think we've seen enough all season that I'm not sure you're going to get four fit centre-backs by the time the business end of the season comes around. And with City's sort of squad as it is, I think you need the protection of another centre-back to make sure you can have kind of at least two

for what you need basically to get top four and make sure you qualify for the Champions League. It's going to be difficult, but I think it's probably easier to find a centre-back that you can sort of help build around than it is to find sort of the elusive centre-backs

perfect cover for Rodri who is happy to not play when Rodri's back to his best but I think the Rodri situation is one whereby City really have to get it right because they can't turn around and say oh well there's no point replacing Rodri because he'll be back in summer and then you know Guardiola's already spoken about he's going to have all these issues next season so if City do not expect Rodri to be at his best and they'll

the 2025-26 season, then they cannot afford to sort of not replace him in that time. If they think much more optimistically and think he's going to be perfect by next season, then fine. But, you know, it's a transfer decision that is critical to how much success they're going to have in the next two, three, four years.

I think, yeah, that's all fair points. I'm surprised I'm not looking more at someone like Supermendi because he's sort of Rodri's backup for Spain and has an opportunity. And I think for all those reasons you mentioned, and Rodri isn't going to be the same player when he returns, it's a good time to sign as a second City-holding midfielder because you will get games. And I think, I mean, Rodri's what, 28, 29? So in the next few years, you're going to need to be

sort of rejuvenating that position so I think someone like that could have been good clearly they're not looking at him in this market I wonder if maybe a Gundogan type player who can drift between six and eight and even ten might be the way forward probably more of a Bruno Guimaraes type even though they're not going for him either just in the sense that Gundogan has a

maybe a year after this one, but he's only contracted until the summer deploying. We still don't know what's happening with him. And if he wants to wait until he's fit for contract talks, then they might never even begin because it seems like he's coming back and then having another setback and coming back and taking a step back. So I think that midfield position needs...

a bit of a jolt and I wonder if that could be the way to offer support because if you've still got Kovacic who can play for another couple of years he wants to play as a double pivot. If you've got someone who can maybe a bit more effectively than Gundogan as he sees a move between 6 and 8 and 10 that might be a better way than just simply signing a Rodri replacement who will probably go back on the bench when Rodri is back to his best so having someone who can play in that area but not

not replace Rodri or De Bruyne or Gundogan explicitly but just offer a different option that helps transition into a world where De Bruyne and Gundogan and Rodri don't play for City anymore. Saying that, I have no idea who that specific player is.

And it is a very specific set of skills and would come at a lot of money. So it's a market where City need to do business, but there's not a lot of standout candidates. And I think that's why there's a bit of tempering of expectations, even though City say we want to buy, we need to buy.

There's also the question of who can they buy and who is good enough. And if they're looking for five years rather than five months, that narrows the pool as well quite considerably. So it will be interesting to see what does happen in January. We've still got another game before that. Leicester away. Took the lead at Anfield on Boxing Day and were beaten, but they're looking a bit better under Ruud van Nistelrooy. Not perfect yet.

in normal circumstances you'd say perfect for City to to turn their form around. Si what can you predict for us at the King Power Stadium? Yeah I think they're looking more attacking I think Leicester fans wanted them to be more attacking than they were under Steve Cooper and they've certainly got that but I've also I think they've given away a ludicrous amount of shots so

It is all set up for Leicester to win 4-0, I would think, and be completely clinical and also keep the clean sheet that they've not been doing. But also, it should be set up for City to have some joy in the final third. You know, Sean Dyche was very complimentary about City and seemed to think that they will turn someone over in the very near future. That could be Leicester, that could be the game, but...

traditionally it has not been a happy hunting ground for them. So, yeah, look, they've got to be going thinking, yeah, this is the game. We can start to turn things around. Whether they will or not is a different story, but they won't get many better opportunities to do so than sort of Leicester away, West Ham home, Salford home. They should be looking at those three thinking, yeah, this is our time.

Yeah, I would fully agree with you. Although before the Villa and Everton games, I said, this is the run where they can start to turn things around. They've got one point from those two. So, I mean, even in the treble season, they went to Leicester and De Bruyne gets a free kick, but it was a very, very tight game. I think it might be 1-0 to City or 2-1 maybe. Not many goals in it.

But I also don't trust them to keep a clean sheet at the moment. So, yeah, I might go 2-1 City. Yeah, I'll be more optimistic, as I am, and go 3-1 City. There we are. 1-0 Leicester incoming. We'll be at the King Power Stadium on, is it Saturday? Sunday. One extra thing is that Jamie Vardy's scoring, isn't he? Jamie Vardy. Ah, yeah, of course. We'll be finding the back of the net.

and running up to Guardiola with a celebration, I'm sure. Yeah, so we'll be there on Sunday. My days go out the window at this time of year. I run solely on what date it is, but we will be there at Leicester whenever it is. We'll be there and we'll bring you City's latest attempt to get out of the run and then look ahead to...

to the January transfer window. We'll be back next week with another Talking City podcast. Thank you for joining us. Have a good new year and enjoy the rest of your Christmas week. Give us a like and a follow and a subscribe wherever you are watching or listening to us. Leave a comment. Thanks very much for joining us and we'll see you soon.