The LOWDOWN | Manchester City Q & A

Manchester City ended up on the wrong side of a Premier League barnstormer against Liverpool before the international break; Pep Guardiola's men now nine points shy of the rampant Reds.

Raheem Sterling has since taken centre stage for his off-field conduct, while the likes of John Stones and Kyle Walker are increasingly under the microscope for their performances on the pitch. Injuries are a problem...yet potential superstar Phil Foden is getting splinters on the bench week in, week out. In short, there's plenty to discuss! 

Joe Butterfield (@joebutters) of Man City Xtra (@City_Xtra) kindly spared us his time to chat City.   

1. Having had the international break to process the Liverpool defeat...just how damaging was it? How much can the players and Guardiola take from the game?

The Liverpool game was probably more damaging to fan morale than anything else. Knowing how close Liverpool ran us last season and the rate they're winning games now in spite of their average performances is giving City fans every reason to feel pessimistic about a nine point gap opening up. As for Pep and the players, they'll be looking at the positives - a bit more clinical finishing and we'd have got a result irrespective of the VAR controversies, Liverpool certainly didn't play us off the park. We've seen this team is capable of going on long winning runs to pull a title race back, I suspect this will be drilled into the players in the coming weeks.

2. Some pundits are keen to hand Liverpool the title already, despite there being 78 top flight points still up for grabs. Do you believe City can still win it?

Personally I fall on the side of pessimism. If we assume that it's going to take at least 95 points to win the league (although the last two seasons suggest it'll almost certainly be more) then we need to win basically every game between now and the end of the season while hoping Liverpool drop points, which given that we've dropped points this season at a far more steady rate than the last two seasons in this opening few months, looks like a tall order. Not impossible as it's only November but, for me, unlikely.

©Getty / Simon Stacpoole/Offside

3. Raheem Sterling has obviously been in the spotlight for the wrong reasons over the past week, but he was outstanding in the Liverpool game. Is he currently City's most important player...and just how good can he be?

Raheem Sterling has a Ballon d'Or in him. His goal contributions are as good as anybody in this calendar year and his start to the season is setting him up for some huge numbers between club and country in 2019/20. He's certainly our most consistent attacking player along with Aguero and equally capable of getting a goal. His off the ball movement is unrivalled and his decision making has improved massively under Pep. The fact he still makes the odd wrong decision and has room for improvement should worry the rest of the Premier League.

4. There is no doubt that the likes of Gundogan and Rodri are top-level midfield operators. However, do doubts remain about their respective ability - particularly without the ball - against elite opposition?

Gundogan divides a lot of City fans. I think it's widely acknowledged that his best football comes when playing as a #6, the only problem being that the first choice in this position has gone from Fernandinho to Rodri, so his time spent there will always be limited. His off the ball work, to my eye, is probably his greatest asset. He's got a great reading of the game and uses it to cut out most attacks before they happen with interceptions, although his traditional defensive work (tackling, heading, marking) is by no means great.

Rodri is still finding his feet in the league and adjusting to the pace of it all. He fits Guardiola football on the ball pretty seamlessly, however nobody can argue that he's been bypassed quite easily in some games. I think this'll change with time, however, as he adapts to the positioning required and Pep coaches him into it.

©Getty / Simon Stacpoole/Offside

5. Phil Foden was on target again for England's U21s and he was name-checked by Southgate in relation to the senior squad. He has still only played 31 minutes of Premier League football for City this term, though...is now the time for Guardiola to blood him properly?

Foden has played far too little football this season. If we had a fully fit squad for the last 2-3 months this would be slightly more understandable but we haven't. Whenever Silva is either rested or injured, Gundogan replaces him despite the fact his performances higher up the pitch have been distinctly average this season (hence the split opinion amongst fans). When Rodri is injured, Gundogan moves back there and it's Silva and De Bruyne playing twice a week despite coaches at the club openly admitting that, due to Silva's age, he's not able to play twice per week with any regularity otherwise his performances dip.

We've played enough winnable Premier League games this year where David Silva could have been rotated out for Foden, which is what many assumed would happen when it was announced this'd be Silva's final season. However, Pep has a very age/experience oriented squad hierarchy so Gundogan will always get the nod ahead of him.

It's a long season and he's had some Champions League minutes, but it's widely agreed that we should see more of Phil.

6. John Stones and Kyle Walker have seen their stock drop on the international stage...how concerned are you about their form and their futures at City?

The Walker situation is odd. Southgate dropped him but then assured him it wasn't a long term thing, now he looks on course to have played no international football this season, which would surely make Southgate look foolish if he were to then pick him for the tournament in the summer. Walker's very up and down in a City shirt. He had a great start to the season, clearing one off the line in the Community Shield in particular, but since those first five or six games he dropped off quite heavily. He saved us against Southampton, but I find him quite average and entirely reliant on his physicality with little to no standout technical quality. Still, he signed a new contract over summer, so I suspect he'll be slowly phased out by Cancelo in the coming 12 months.

Stones has been very unlucky. His injury record sets him back whenever he gets into a good spell of form, he's very much a player who needs to get into the rhythm of regular playing time to see the best of him. His City future isn't under any doubt that I can see, he's English, he's still relatively young, he has the qualities to play in this system. Once Laporte returns, the two should surely be our first choice partnership.

©Getty / Malcolm Couzens

7. In-form Chelsea await this coming weekend - how important is the game in the context of City's title aspirations?

We're basically at the stage where any more dropped points hammer another nail in the coffin. We're already nine points behind Liverpool, a defeat would see us drop to four points behind Chelsea, then you think if Leicester win we're suddenly chasing down three teams, which feels worryingly like Pep's first season in charge.

I do like Lampard's Chelsea team, he's put together a likeable squad that I enjoy watching as a neutral. However they've shown defensive fragility against opponents of real quality and we should be looking to exploit that. They'll come at us on the front foot undoubtedly, so I expect a high scoring game. Three points are sorely needed to get the winning feeling back and remind the players that they're as good as we all know they are.

Many thanks to Joe for his time, check out @joebutters and @City_Xtra for more quality Man City content!

🗣️ Trevor Sinclair:

"How can Liverpool fans be calling him out? He went there as a young player, he gave everything for the red shirt when he was there, and he was sold for a record fee. Why is there hatred towards him?

This has definitely added fuel to the fire..."#MCFC pic.twitter.com/zfOMLn9cmM

— Man City Xtra (@City_Xtra) November 12, 2019