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Defeat against Leicester City on Boxing Day was not on the script for Pep Guardiola, but yes, it just happened. Manchester City lost 2-1 away to Leicester City on Wednesday and that result has cost City a lot. Tottenham Hotspur pushed them to third in the Premier League standings after a thumping 5-0 win over Bournemouth and City now trail the table-toppers Liverpool by seven points.
Well, Manchester City did what they do best, dominate possession, but their end product went begging. As a matter of fact, City was the first team to open the scoring before Leicester drew level from a fine header from Albrighton.
However, in the 81st minute, Ricardo Pereira’s thunderous strike gave Leicester the lead resulting from a cleared corner kick. Afterward, things went from bad to worse for Manchester city as Fabian Delph was shown a red card for a reckless challenge on Pereira.
Pep Guardiola must be scratching his head after suffering back to back defeats at the hands of Crystal Palace and Leicester City in a matter of days. Here we take a look at the three Manchester City players who had a poor outing on Wednesday.
#1 Fabian Delph
Delph was particularly poor today. He is the one to blame for Leicester’s first-half goal, as he allowed Albrighton to pull away from him to score. His tactical awareness was below par as he constantly struggled to deal with aerial balls played over his head. He was later sent off for a dangerous challenge on Pereira in the dying minutes of the game.
#2 Danilo
Pep was certain that Danilo would fancy his chances of being picked ahead of an out-of-form Kyle Walker in the starting lineup, but the Brazilian failed to take his chances properly. Danilo was particularly exposed by Leicester city players. Essentially, it was Brazilian who fell to the ground leading to the build-up to Albrighton’s first-half goal. The foul on Danilo is debatable, but in general, his performance was poor for the whole 90 minutes.
#3 Raheem Sterling
On his day, Sterling becomes a nuisance and hard to handle. The way Raheem creates spaces for teammates in the opposition box with his direct runs and pace is perhaps the reason why Manchester City rates him highly. Unfortunately, today against Leicester, Sterling was not impressive at all.
He failed to utilize his pace to press Leicester’s defense into making errors. Instead, City fans were forced to watch an out of form Sterling who did nothing with the ball on his feet. In most cases, Raheem Sterling’s decision making was wanting- losing the ball in crucial areas.
EndNote
After suffering two defeats in a row, it is now clear that the team lacks confidence. City’s poor form has been attributed to a number of factors. "It was a similar performance to the Crystal Palace game, we started well but conceded a goal the first time they arrived in our box. Mentally we are lacking confidence in that situation," Guardiola told the BBC. Manchester City next plays Southampton on Sunday.
