Manuel Pellegrini’s pre-match press conferences are eminently predictable. Regardless of the opposition, the Chilean tends to insist that Manchester City face a difficult game and need to play at maximum intensity if they are to take the three points. Any time he is asked about a major Uefa Champions League game on the horizon, he claims their focus is purely on their next match.
Yet there are times when it would help if the Chilean practised what he preached. City are a team with abundant ability whose tendency to get ahead of themselves can cause their undoing. Saturday’s 4-1 evisceration by Liverpool was a damning case in point.
City have paid the price for finishing twice in their Champions League group in successive seasons, drawing Barcelona in the round of 16 and beating a hasty exit. They could secure first place in their pool by defeating Juventus tomorrow. Pellegrini appeared to work backwards in his calculations, and in the absence of anything resembling a proper explanation from him, we have to assume he did, by deciding he needed Nicolas Otamendi and Fernandinho in Turin and benching them on Saturday.
Liverpool and Tottenham players star with Man United's David de Gea — EPL team of the week]
Each, in fairness, had faced a lengthy journey back from South America. Yet so had others who started. City were already without their premier playmaker, in David Silva, and their best centre-back, in Vincent Kompany. Pellegrini’s decisions stripped them of their next best stopper, with Eliaquim Mangala and Martin Demichelis forming hapless deputies, and the one central midfielder with the energy to rival Liverpool’s hyperactive runners.
Using Yaya Toure in a deeper role sent the wrong signal, too. City had been tactically astute and defensively sound against Sevilla but the introduction of another progressive player suggested that they felt this was an easier task. The message, it seemed to be, was that they did not need to compromise their attacking ambitions to face Liverpool.
While Pellegrini branded the thrashing a “disaster”, it is hard to escape the feeling it was one of City’s creation. They seemed to underestimate Liverpool. Pellegrini may warn against complacency on a weekly basis, but he and his team have a tendency to be seduced by it.
The start of his reign, in 2013, was notable for away defeats, especially at Cardiff City, Aston Villa and Sunderland, where both the results and the manner of them suggested he had taken the division’s outsiders too lightly. They were separated by a stalemate at Stoke City, where Pellegrini again prioritised an upcoming Champions League game and fielded a weakened team. Ultimately, they did not cost City the title that season.
[Richard Jolly: Yannick Bolasie: Crystal Palace's enigmatic winger capable of leading the charge into Europe]
Other missteps have been more damaging. Pellegrini attributed City’s inability to retain their championship to their results against relegated teams last season; the home draws against Burnley and Hull City felt particularly avoidable.
His two FA Cup campaigns have been curtailed by Championship opposition, Wigan Athletic and Middlesbrough, and both at the Etihad Stadium. It is a still more damaging trend as City also went two goals down to a third second-tier club, Watford, before Sergio Aguero staged a rescue act in January 2014.
Sometimes it has been a question of personnel, and some of their more embarrassing results have occurred in Fernandinho’s absence. Invariably, however, it is a matter of attitude.
City’s gifts mean they can often beat more industrious sides, but they should not lull themselves into thinking it is always possible. Tellingly, their two 4-1 defeats this season have come to the Premier League’s two foremost exponents of high-speed pressing, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool. City looked sloppy, ragged and rattled on both occasions.
Every team suffers surprise setbacks in a season, but City could do more to prevent them. While Liverpool have fallen on hard times, a club of their stature should never be treated as such inferiors.
While management involves balancing objectives and while it is impossible to send out the strongest team for 60 games a season, Pellegrini has a duty to ensure he has an organised and motivated team on every occasion.
His answers before every game may be glib cliches but, to use another, he and City take their eye off the ball too often.
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @NatSportUAE
