Pep Guardiola faces test of Man City’s flaws by Marcelo Bielsa’s full-throttle Leeds

Many of the negative whispers will go away as soon as City put a string of results together

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola (Pool via REUTERS)

In the era of over-reaction, a single defeat turns into a crisis. Those at the peak of the sport are most susceptible to becoming the focus of drama. Two games into the season, Pep Guardiola is standing in this ugly spotlight.

Manchester City’s 5-2 loss to Leicester City at the Etihad was stunning. The result came little more than six weeks after Guardiola’s team crashed out of the Champions League at the quarter-final stage as a result of a shocking 3-1 defeat by Lyons. A feeling of staleness hangs over the Etihad. City go to Elland Road tonight to face an ebullient Leeds United. Marcelo Bielsa’s side gave Liverpool a scare at Anfield. They are confident they can unnerve Guardiola’s men.

Rumblings have emerged from City’s dressing room since they were dumped out of the Champions League. Guardiola surprised the team before the game with a change of tactics. The low-key grumbling has continued, especially in the wake of the Leicester defeat. The Catalan is starting his fifth season in charge, the longest tenure of his career. The question increasingly being asked is whether this is a year too far.

Guardiola’s intensity is notorious. It is draining for the squad but even more so for the manager. This provides an easy getout for the players when things go wrong. The 49-year-old’s emotionally exhausting style allows all the blame to be directed towards the dugout.

The expensively assembled cast of superstars on the pitch need to take some responsibility. Guardiola is unquestionably the leader at the Etihad. He is the central figure and City’s entire structure was built to accommodate the former Barcelona coach.

Jurgen Klopp holds a similar exalted position at Anfield but there is a difference: Liverpool have leaders in the team. Klopp called his players “mentality monsters” for a reason. Even though the German is the guiding presence, the likes of Alisson Becker, Virgil van Dijk, Andy Robertson and Jordan Henderson take the initiative during games.

It is not as simple for Guardiola. There is a lack of leadership in the City side. Kevin De Bruyne is probably the most authoritative voice in the team. Too many of Guardiola’s players look to others to lift the side.

Part of that is reflected in what one insider called “bubbling discontent” in the aftermath of the Lyons defeat. De Bruyne has talked about there being no “plan B” for City. The tactical change for the Champions League quarter final might have been misguided but it was huge departure from plan A. Players cannot have it both ways. When De Bruyne is the voice of the side the rest of the team should take a hard look at themselves.

Many of the whispers will go away as soon as City put a string of results together. Victories solve issues. As recently as three summers ago, senior members of the Liverpool team were questioning Klopp’s methods with the same sort of language in private. Questioning plan B is invariably plan A for disgruntled players. Now Anfield’s doubters are counting their medals and those dark thoughts are buried in the recesses of their minds.

City have spent huge amounts of money acquiring talent but they should have balanced their recruitment by seasoning it with character.  The slight discontent – and let’s not overplay this – around the Etihad has the air of players getting their excuses in first. If things go wrong, everything will be laid at Guardiola’s door.

That would create a huge problem for City, who have tied so much of their identity to their manager’s persona. It should not come to that. Guardiola is indisputably one of the best leaders the game has seen. Anyone who refers to this serial winner as a ‘fraud’ is seriously delusional.

This does not mean the City manager is infallible. His inability to build a solid defence is bewildering. Yet again there is another revamp in progress. Eric Garcia should be on his way to Barcelona if City lower their exorbitant pricetag but it is bizarre that the manager would pick the Spaniard for the tie against Lyons and persist with him for the Leicester game. The treatment of John Stones is strange, too. The Englishman has not developed at the Etihad and is likely to return to Everton before the window closes on Monday, but surely the 26-year-old is a better option than the likes of Garcia?

Sometimes it appears that criticism of Guardiola inside the game is either non-existent or regarded as heresy but there is a healthy amount of scepticism about the City manager among his peers. It is legitimate to question how he would cope in a job outside the superclub elite. Yet even his detractors laugh off the idea that he is heading for the sack at the Etihad.

The bigger issue is that City are at the start of another rebuilding cycle. The tactics that were so successful and delivered two consecutive titles – a five-man press, a single midfield anchor and a high-line back four – are no longer working with the same efficiency. This is in part because of changing personnel and partly because of opposition familiarity with Guardiola’s methods.

The team will soon be back on track but discontent is natural. The core reason for unhappiness in east Manchester is that City are the second-best team in the Premier League. That should not cause general hysteria but it has to make Guardiola and his players miserable.