These are curious times at Manchester City. The manager’s job is under serious threat and still Manuel Pellegrini struggled to extract a tune from the 11 players he decided should be capable of winning a first match in three outings by beating bottom-placed Leicester City.
With Chelsea able to stretch their lead to eight points if they win their game in hand, Pellegrini went down the route marked “drastic action” when choosing his team to play a Foxes side who arrived at the Etihad with only 18 points and four victories all season in the league.
The rumour swirling around beforehand that Vincent Kompany was to be dropped proved true. When the team sheet fell the captain was named as a replacement in an act of ruthlessness from Pellegrini that the Chilean could have displayed earlier in the campaign.
After the 2-1 losses at home to Barcelona and at Liverpool, Pellegrini’s pre-match notes insisted: “It is more important to analyse why the last two team performances dipped rather than analyse the performance of any one player.”
The problem with this argument is that a side is made up of 11 individuals and when the manager drops the leader of these he is red-lighting the conclusion his analysis has led to.
For this victory Pellegrini made five changes to the XI that proved particularly insipid at Anfieldon Sunday but following Kompany’s season-long struggle for form and his profile as the champions’ gun defender there was little doubt what his removal said.
Kompany can count himself fortunate not to have been left out previously as the first-half dawdle that allowed Philippe Coutinho to nick the ball and ignite a Liverpool attack that created their opening goal was the latest in a catalogue of costly mistakes.
As Pellegrini enters job-preservation mode he had to act. So along with Kompany out went Pablo Zabaleta, Edin Dzeko, Samir Nasri and Fernandinho, and in came Fernando, Martín Demichelis, Bacary Sagna, Jesús Navas and Wilfried Bony (to make a full debut).
The evidence of most of the first half suggested Pellegrini could have dropped all 10 of his outfielders from Sunday. The same old problems of a lack of spark, a pace-deficit in thought and execution, and a midfield that offers minimal protection were yet again present.
By the interval City, finally, had managed to take a lead through a well‑worked David Silva goal but before and after that they endured a struggle to discover any kind of rhythm and conviction. For long passages the Sky Blues basically performed like an outfit who had already conceded the title and who were considering their summer holiday options. Twice Bony had clear chances to open his and the team’s account but the £25m new boy lacked composure, the second opportunity missed with a wild hack of the Ivorian’s left boot.
Pellegrini is under threat due to the faltering title defence and unconvincing Champions League campaign that have shown up the Chilean’s tactical limitations. The rigid, almost stubborn, maintaining of a 4-4-2 is the prevailing charge against the manager.
To take those most recent examples, the dizzying pass-and-move of Barcelona and Liverpool’s relentless fluidity make the need for an extra man to hassle and harry in midfield apparent. Yet Pellegrini again sent City out with the two-striker system for both of those games.
A Leicester team that began the evening with a goal difference of minus 18 and which is several classes below Barça or Liverpool should not have been able to cause City problems as they did throughout. In the second half Riyad Mahrez hit Joe Hart’s left post – there may have been a slight deflection – and before the break Fernando and Yaya Touré allowed Jeff Schlupp, Leicester City’s left-sided attacker in their 5-4-1, to punch holes in midfield with ease on more than one occasion.
All of this was played out before a restless home crowd and in a stadium that had a notable number of empty seats and that lacked atmosphere.
City are still in with a shout of the title and making the Champions League quarter-finals, of course. But what is materially required this close season is a major overhaul of the squad.
To do so a return is required to the days when the Sheikh Mansour project was about signing genuine marquee names like Carlos Tevez, Touré, Sergio Agüero and Silva.
Since Pellegrini replaced Roberto Mancini in the summer of 2013 no stellar performer has walked through the club’s doors.
James Milner’s late goal made the scoreline appear convincing but City, as has been the case too many times this season, were anything but.