Individual errors plus collective responsibility

Once again more errors led to goals – two this time and the ‘Oooops’ disease has spread from defence into midfield.

‘tis the season? 🎅

We’re not even half way through November and yet our soft centres are already out for everyone else to feed on.

There are way too many individual errors at the moment and I saw it in the body language of some of them yesterday that it’s beginning to affect them. There were moments yesterday where it looked like Josko Gvardiol and Marc Guehi just didn’t want to be near the ball or even the pitch yesterday such was their shrunken demeanour.

Josko eventually got his wish and didn’t re-emerge after the break - his manager stating that the player informed him at half time of feeling a slight niggly injury. The same went for confidence drained, Marc Guehi, who told his manager likewise and sat out the second half too. 🤔 Khusanov moved back to his natural position of central defender and two wing-backs moved into their natural places and then…TA-DAAA! We looked a lot better after the break.

Two hesitation moments undid us yesterday.

The first was Josko Gvardiol, although when I analyse the moment a few times, his midfielders and fellow defenders did little to step up and offer him an outlet. This is the collective thing I’m getting to also.

The second dithery moment came in the heart of our midfield when, for some strange reason, Elliot Anderson was so slow to react to a Forest headed clearance. Perhaps Iliman Ndiaye should have continued to run after it, like he started to, but then stopped; expecting Anderson to do his mopping up job. Regardless of who was at more fault, the communication was shocking and, once again, a slip up cost yet another goal.

Although we saw considerable improvement in the second half, there was a lack of collective intensity in the first half and, when compared to our opponents, some of our players were practically walking at times! 😠 Enzo Maresca didn’t look at all happy about that particular aspect.

However, fingers are already starting to point…

Match of the Day pointed out just how many defensive combinations Enzo Maresca had tried and although I can understand that kind of tinkering to a point when you’re attempting to solidify a problem area, which for some reason wasn’t a problem for the first six games of the season; they did highlight the repercussions of making so many changes to a defensive unit.

There was even a suggestion that so many changes was partly to blame for Gianluigi Donnarumma’s recent poor form; struggling to keep up and gel with different defensive personnel.

Furthermore, the BBC pundits added, it does little for the confidence of the individual player when they’re concerned about making one error for fear of being dropped the next match. Again, I certainly saw that anxiety in a couple of ‘em yesterday evening.

They were all fair points, I thought, and I’ll add to that list of probable causes, playing central defenders in the wing-back positions.

Yes, apparently the staff are managing Nico O’Reilly’s time due to an ongoing back concern and, yes also; Matheus Nunes was out for a fortnight with a knock / possible groin issue recently. But…how long have City fans been highlighting the need for extra cover / specialist wing-backs in our various squads?

Let’s not forget, Matheus Nunes and Nico O’Reilly are midfielders by trade; Rico Lewis has publicly stated his desire to be more of an attacking midfield - and I don’t think there’s ANY City fan who believes that he’s a defender either – and very recently, our manager said in one pre-match press conference that Rayan Ait-Nouri isn’t a defender; he sees the ex-Wolves man as a winger and nothing else.

From just 2 goals conceded in the first 6 games of the season…what a mess it now appears to be defensively.

Seeing Xaver Schlager and former City Academy player, Liam Delap, slicing through both our central midfield and defence with apparent ease before making it look easy also to put the ball past world class Gianluigi Donnarumma summed us up perfectly. That one also stung quite a bit as I sat watching it with a sinking feeling in my stomach.

So, we go into yet another effin international break with the following record since our fantastic 0-3 away win at Anfield on 11^th October:

In all competitions…

P8: W4 (1 on pens), D0, L4. F17 A17. Jesus.

Full internationals Gianluigi Donnarumma, Abdukodir Khuasanov, Josko Gvardiol, Marc Guehi, Matheus Nunes, Nico O’Reilly, Ruben Dias, Elliot Anderson and Enzo Fernandez and yet we concede 17 goals in just 8 matches.

Before yesterday, Nottingham Forest hadn’t scored a goal at home since April 2026 and yet not only did they manage 3 against us but they slammed 2 past us in the first 18 minutes!

International breaks sometimes feel like they come at good times and bad times depending on what kind a run a team is on. This one feels very much like a good time to me…time for Maresca and his staff to pour over lots of video nasties; identify the problem(s) and come up with a plan.

 

Nottingham Forest away has seen…

…a very mixed bag of results over the last few seasons.

v Nottingham Forest

City Ground

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game which, for me blog wise, was our home defeat against Brighton & Hove Albion: 9/11.

A fluid 4-2-3-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3:

_____________________Haaland(VC)_________________

 

 

__Doku_________________________________Ndiaye__

______________________Cherki____________________

 

__________Fernandez____________________________

_______________________________Anderson________

Gvardiol___________________________________Nunes

___________Guehi(VC)_______________Dias(C)_________

 

 

___________________Donnarumma(VC)_______________

Subs: Rulli, Lewis, O’Reilly, Khusanov, Reis, Bouaddi, Kovacic, Foden and Elias.

I expect Gianluigi to start between the sticks but, once again, he was most definitely at fault for another goal conceded last Wednesday - his positioning was more than questionable at his near post for their first goal. It was a gaping hole that he left between himself and the post for the attacker to get a shot through. To his credit, he pulled off a really good fingertip save at the top left of his goal just before that. He will continue to hope, I’m sure, to be much better this evening but Geronimo Rulli must be watching with increased interest to see if there’s a chance of seeing some league action of his own at some point of the season. That, of course, is a decision for our manager but, through his performances, it’s a decision which can also be influenced by the player who currently holds the ‘Number 1’ spot.

Ahead of Gigi in the defensive unit, I’m going for a back-4 of Josko, Marc, Ruben and Matheus.

Elliot is our deepest midfielder; Enzo slightly more advanced and Rayan-C- further forward still in central midfield.

Jeremy left, Iliman right and Erling up top.

Geronimo is reserve stopper; Rico, Nico, Abdukodir and Vitor make up four defenders on the side. Midfielders and wingers come in the shape of Ayyoub, Mateo, Phil and Allan.

Notable absences:

-       Marcus Bettinelli – Not selected.

-       Rayan Ait-Nouri – Not selected and linked, once again, with a January move to a side who currently sit one place above the relegation zone on goal difference alone after a quarter of the season played.

-       Antoine Semenyo – Out for 2 months from 17^th October with a knee injury.

Do I agree with Enzo’s (predicted) line-up?

If they’ve got their act together from Anderson backwards then, yeah.

Alternatives would include extra pace a positional awareness in the shape of Khusanov and Reis in defence and / or the introduction of Bouaddi.

Result?

Our host’s main issue this season so far has been finding the back of their opponents net; with just 6 goals in their opening 9 league fixtures. In fact, they are the division’s lowest scorers. Perhaps, then, this isn’t the time to be tinkering with our defence; one that’s been so very leaky of late.

However, I just thought I’d throw up a possible alternative change of direction, should our manager be thinking of such a thing.

It’s just a little thought on the matter – it’s never gonna happen but what the ‘eck… 🤷‍♂️🤪

The 5-4-1 / 3-6-1:

_____________________Haaland(VC)_________________

 

 

__Doku_________________________________Ndiaye__

______________________Cherki____________________

 

_____________________Anderson___________________

__O’Reilly________________________________Nunes__

 

________Gvardiol_______Dias(C)_______Khusanov____

 

 

___________________Donnarumma(VC)_______________

A slight alternative to that if that centre of our midfield looks a little thin there…

The 3-7-0…with no Erling / lead striker! WHAT?! 🫢:

________________________________________________

 

 

__Doku_________________________________Ndiaye__

____________Cherki______________Foden___________

 

_____________________Anderson__________________

__O’Reilly_______________________________Nunes__

 

________Gvardiol_______Dias(C)_______Khusanov____

 

 

___________________Donnarumma(VC)_______________

Just having a little play and to ‘throw it out there’ while we work out how to stop the flippin’ constant drip-drip-drip of goals conceded in the last month or so.

Back to reality…🌀

Forest are in terrible league form (W L L L D L) and sit second-bottom on 6 points from a possible 27. However, this is a ground where silly mistakes have cost us…and that’s something we’re currently specialising in. Something has to be done.

This is a weird one in some ways - it’s the exact opposite of ‘irresistible force meets immovable object’. Their attack, far from being irresistible, meets our defence; very amenable at the moment when pressured.

Do I believe that we’ll finally keep a clean sheet today? I think it’s our best chance in weeks, yes.

However, I think there’ll be so much doubt as well as some nervousness in the rearguard department of our starting 11 that we’ll managed to conceded yet another goal.

That being said, I do believe also that we’ll score more than the home side and, therefore, this’ll be a Manchester City win.

Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:

Prediction: Win

Result: Won

(Pre-match blog posting from that game)

Expected weather conditions during the game: Calm, grey, dry and cool (8C). 🧥☕🥧🍺⚽

Solidarity

 

A quick look back at yesterday and…

…a blog announcement.

Errors, and bad decision making generally, cost us…again.

It was so Aston Villa like from the previous weekend, so I thought.

·         Plenty of attacking will and creativity.

·         Another bad individual error at the back, which cost us another leaked goal.

·         SO much hesitancy and poor decision making up front – so much so that I did what I don’t normally do the following morning and was pausing, rewinding and then frame-forwarding a lot of the action slowly; often asking after the 2^nd or 3^rd viewing, “WHY?!”. 😮

The outcome wasn’t helped by the officials either – and of course I include the V.A.R. Team – by denying us a clear penalty at one end and then a clear free kick from inside the 6-yard box at the other in the second half.

I was almost kicking the ground in frustration at full time. Last Wednesday night against the same / slightly changed team I thought they were the better side over the whole 90+, as I said in my last posting. Result? We scraped a win via a penalty shootout after ending normal time 2-2.

Yesterday, I thought we were MUCH the better side and came away with absolutely nothing; not even a goal to our name. 😠

It is slightly concerning just how it’s going for us of late:

-       That’s now 17 goals conceded in 14 games, all competitions included.

-       In our last 6 outings alone since the 14^th October (just 18 days), we’ve conceded in every match and a whopping total of 11 goals in those half-dozen matches. That’s poor.

-       We’ve failed to win our last three games in normal time. What a contrast from August and September.

I’ll skip the missed chances count in that same timeframe, if you don’t mind…

Okay, there may be no blog posting ahead of our fixture away at RB Leipzig on Wednesday night. We’ll see but I may have too much on and if that’s the case, I’d rather concentrate on a pre-match blog posting ahead of our next league fixture on Saturday.

Thanks, as always, for taking the time to read.