10 goals scored in eight matches played in the Premier League.
Either the 13th attack in the English championship.
Difficult, not to say impossible, to imagine that behind these figures lie Manchester City, its usually flamboyant attacking game.
If the Citizens had a loophole so far, it was obvious she was in defense, not attack.
Alas, times have visibly changed for a Pep Guardiola who, like an insipid defeat of his troops last weekend on the ground of Tottenham (2-0), has lost his magic and his inspiration since the season resumed.
In proportions hardly imaginable ...
“The way we play is pretty good, I'm pretty happy. Sometimes we just need more success to score. ”
Pep guardiola
Thus, since the arrival of the Spaniard on the Mancunian bench in the summer of 2016, the Citizens' attack had never been so unproductive, its lowest total after eight matches being 19 goals in 2016-2017. .
Either just at the start of the Guardiola era and almost double the current one.
The lucid and optimistic former Barca coach does not deny the problem: “We are a team that has scored a lot in recent seasons, but now we are struggling.
We have to find solutions.
We have the players to find the right way to attack and I have a feeling we can start scoring a lot again.
The way we play is pretty good, I'm pretty happy.
Sometimes we just need more success to score. ”
An observation supported by figures since City, with 125 attempts, is the team that shoots the most in the Premier League behind Liverpool (157) and Leeds (130).
All with one less game.
Aguero and Jesus, the big absent
That is to say 15.6 shots per game, a total not so far from his best hours.
Problem however, only 5.4 find the frame, which means the Citizens only find their way into the net once every 12.5 shots, compared to an average of 7 in the previous four seasons.
A cruel lack of realism that can be explained for different reasons.
The first, and the simplest, concerns injuries.
Between them, Sergio Aguero (two matches) and Gabriel Jesus (three matches) played only 381 minutes on the pitch, the Argentine due to a knee injury and the Brazilian for a muscle problem. .
A double absence that left the Citizens orphans of a real center-forward, especially as Raheem Sterling (2 goals) has not gone through the last two months the most prosperous period of his career.
It is undoubtedly for this reason that last summer, Guardiola had tried to obtain the arrival of Lionel Messi, knowing full well that at 32 years old, Aguero was becoming more and more fragile while Gabriel Jesus, despite a potential undeniable, does not yet manage to find the consistency that would make him a great goalscorer.
However, the Aguero-Jesus tandem is not the only one responsible, even if those absent are often wrong.
In the game, Manchester City are also suffering from the departure of David Silva last summer, who was not replaced.
Expected as the successor of the Spaniard, Bernardo Silva has only been a shadow of himself since the start of the season.
A final judgment also valid for Riyad Mahrez, who tends to get too entangled in unnecessary dribbling and who can no longer make the same differences as in previous seasons.
De Bruyne, between annoyance and impotence
A drop in performance that also concerns the star and playing master of this team, Kevin De Bruyne, who has scored only one goal so far in the Premier League.
Facing Tottenham, the Belgian showed several signs of annoyance and a desire, sometimes, to make a difference alone, he who has always been a model of altruism.
By playing against nature, his confidence and influence tend to fly away.
Even the emergence of youngsters Phil Foden and Ferran Torres fails to compensate for all these weaknesses, especially as the Spaniard shines for the moment only in the Champions League and is still looking for his first goal in the league.
The fluid and extremely varied game of the Citizens touted in recent seasons has suddenly now completely disappeared and the tactical choices made by Guardiola no longer have the same beneficial effect, sometimes even leaving the impression of being misunderstood by his players, lost in the field.
10 - @ManCity have scored 10 goals in their seven league games this season;
their fewest tally at this stage of a season since 2010/11 (9) and 17 fewer than they had after seven games last season.
Blunt. @ Edwaardz assesses if things are as troubling as they look for #ManCity.
- OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 19, 2020
For now, as a bulwark against the gray, Guardiola is walled in optimism and unfailing support to his players.
“We would like to score more, but it will come.
And one day, we will break everything, ”he said after the short success of Wednesday in the Champions League on the field of Olympiakos (0-1).
An optimism may also be linked to the identity of the next opponent of the Citizens at the Etihad this Saturday (5 p.m.), Burnley.
Clarets who remain on three consecutive defeats on the score of 5-0 in the Mancunian enclosure and are the perfect victims to revive an attack of amorphous City.
Unless you see the glass half empty and say to yourself, too, that if Burnley's reception does not awaken the Citizens' offensive fiber, then that would mean that the evil is even deeper than diagnosed so far ...
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