Premier League 2018/19: 3 reasons for Manchester City's recent failures this season

After an unbeaten run which stretched till December, Pep Guardiola's famous 'Centurions' tumbled down to the 3rd place in the English Premier League table. Their sudden fall comes as a shock as they almost looked like a team without any weakness.

However, the champions suffered three defeats in their last four Premier League games against Chelsea, Crystal Palace, and Leicester City. Currently, they are seven points behind the league leaders, Liverpool, as the Premier League Champions handed them bonus gifts during the festive season with their unexpected defeats.

Meanwhile, Tottenham continued their sensational rise and are now second in the Premier League and are one point above Manchester City.

“If you want to be real contenders you need to win again,” said City boss Guardiola after their defeat versus Leicester City.

There is no doubt that the Premier League is one of the toughest leagues in the world and Manchester City quickly need to turn things around if they want to keep their title hopes alive. Without further ado, let us evaluate three reasons for Manchester City's recent dip in form.

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#1 Chokers' mentality

It is quite shocking how a strong side like Manchester City are suddenly suffering unexpectedly against weaker opponents in the Premier League. They have spent a huge amount of money over the years and their squad depth is arguably the best in the league.

The big-spenders of Premier League have fewer excuses for their slump since their best players David Silva and Kevin de Bruyne are back from recent injuries. However, it almost looks like they were doing better without them. The senior players of the squad are yet to step up and lead the young talents through the crunch times.

Despite the numerous talents in the squad, their squad is still young. It was already evident in their failures in the Champions League and currently, the players looked tensed and less confident on the ball whenever Leicester City, Crystal Palace, and Chelsea pressed and fought back.

Evidently, the Manchester City squad are still getting used to high-pressure situations. Usually, they find it relatively easy to break through defensive lines of the opponents but when they are losing, they falter in the final third showing the mentality of chokers in crunch situations.

#2 Lack of plan B

Leicester City stunned Guardiola and his men at King Power Stadium

Pep Guardiola himself admitted that there is a lack of dynamism in the squad. And this weakness gets more revealing and evident whenever Manchester City losses. The squad often fail to show versatility when Pep Guardiola's primary tactics and his resounding philosophy fails.

Evidently, Manchester City boss is concerned about his team's recent performances. They suffered their 3rd league defeat in four games and failed to handle the pressure from opponents.

There is no plan B for this attack-minded team as they never faced a difficult situation like this under the Spanish coach. The direct football is also taken out of Manchester City's equation as they don't have many tall players to take advantage of high crosses.

Pep Guardiola himself can turn things around for Manchester City and his first strategy should be to instil more dynamism and versatility among the players of the current squad.

#3 Lack of effective defensive midfielder in Fernandinho's absence

Manchester City is over-reliant on Fernandinho

Over the years, Manchester City has spent a huge sum of money on creative talents. They score a staggering amount of goals every game and their creativity is a joy to watch.

However, the Premier League Champions are over-reliant on the under-rated Fernandinho. In 115 appearances for the Brazilian during the Pep Guardiola period, Manchester City have won 71.3% of their matches in comparison to just 59.3% from the 27 matches he has missed.

Fernandinho, for all his services for Manchester City in the last few seasons, was a key piece in their puzzle and still is. However, he is not getting younger and at 33, he is clearly far from his peak. He doesn't have an alternative as the Champions fail to land Jorginho in the Transfer market.

Fabian Delph occasionally does a good job but he is not world-class. He was the weak link in City's last game as Leicester City exploited his ineffectiveness. Moreover, he got sent-off and a 10-men Manchester City was unable to score a late equalizer.

While the likes of Sergio Busquets, Casemiro and N'Golo Kante are having a huge impact in big matches and dominating in crunch times, it's time for Manchester City to invest in a world-class defensive midfielder to take the pressure off the Brazilian.