Manchester City Mid Season Review 2020/2021
Champions Elect? You’d have to say so. Managing to significantly improve their long problem at the back this season has clearly been the key. By far the best defence in the league, with just 13 goals conceded at the time of this review (7 less than Arsenal in 2nd place) and just 1 goal conceded in their last 8 EPL games, fans can finally relax.
Many would point to John Stones’ incredible rebirth at the club as a factor in this. His partnership with Ruben Diaz being so strong that it has kept a world class defender like Laporte on the bench. Few could argue that John Stones is proving to be the best English centre back around. Another fact that’ll give Guardiola confidence is they’ve managed to put themselves comfortably in first place, without Aguero for almost all of the season. Arguably their most important player alongside De Bruyne, who is also out injured. Adding weight to the argument that the Citizens have the greatest depth in the league.
Weaknesses
It is hard to find weaknesses in this team, but as mentioned above they do lack a reliable goalscorer at the moment. Granted, they are doing a good job sharing that responsibility. But long term, all successful teams do need a striker that will get 20+ a season. The man they anticipated filling in for Aguero being Gabriel Jesus, has only managed the 3 goals so far. Worryingly, the top scorer is not one of the men in the front 3 either. Amazingly, Gundogan has managed to hit in 7 this season.
January transfers
Surprisingly, City refused the chance to add to their squad this month. Something I feel may prove to be risky. We only have to look to their last few games, where we have seen them forcing the likes of Bernando Silva or Mahrez, out of position to fill the number 9 position. Have the Sky Blue’s missed a trick in not landing a big name striker? Especially when it’s a big possibility that Aguero may finally leave the club at the end of the campaign. If they intend to address this issue in the summer, the time until then could’ve been used to allow his replacement to settle in. Giving the striker a better chance to hit the ground running come the new season. Just look at Timo Werner as an example of how hard it is to settle into this league!
Predictions
Having amassed a comfortable points lead and on a very impressive run, it’s hard to bet against City. Even if complacency creeps in, which I think is a big possibility, I just feel the other clubs won’t prove to be consistent enough to catch them. With 57 points left to fight for, I’m going to say only 30 points would be enough to be crowned champions. So 10 wins from 19 is required, a very attainable feat for a club with 13 successive wins in all competitions.
Did you enjoy this review? Why not read our Liverpool mid-season review?
“Manchester City Football Club” by Richard_of_England is licensed under CC BY 2.0