Manchester City just cannot seem to get back to their best: Is the Pep Guardiola DNA fading away?

Manchester City's struggles continue to haunt Pep Guardiola and co. (Image credits - FMT, License Details)

It was another yet disappointing defeat for Manchester City as Pep Guardiola and co. faced a shocking exit from the FIFA Club World Cup after being knocked out by Al Hilal, who managed to pull off a stunning victory against the English giants.

While it was a narrow win for Hilal in a stunning 7-goal thriller which went right until the 120th-minute mark, it is fair to say that City once again looked nowhere near their best, which looked like the case after the arrival of their new signings, Rodri's return and their seemingly improved performance in the group stage.

However, similar woes appeared to have hurt City yet again as Hilal managed to expose their wounds, which couldn't be healed even by Rodri's return, making the issue possibly bigger than what Pep Guardiola and his management would've considered it to be.

Even the arrival of new signings couldn't get Pep's dysfunctional new system to dominate like in the previous seasons. Despite Rayan Ait-Nouri and Rayan Cherki's decent performances, the call for a change for Guardiola now hints at an even bigger picture than just replenishing the squad with new additions.

What seems to be going wrong for Pep Guardiola and Manchester City?

In their RO16 clash, City's vulnerabilities in their defence and the newly built midfield were quite clearly evident and even majorly exploited by Al-Hilal, allowing them to outscore their oppositions despite having conceded 3 goals.

While Pep's men appeared to hold the ground at the centre of the pitch, with new signing Tijjiani Reijnders making a strong impact, the midfield lacked fluidity, which is why City did not look as free-flowing as they used to.

One of the primary reasons for this persisting issue throughout their 2024/25 campaign had been Rodri's absence; however, his return has also not helped the former Premier League champions, as the Spanish midfielder appeared to be struggling after being back in regular action after having spent such a major time on the sidelines.

In the initial 3-man midfield for the game, comprising Bernardo Silva, Tijjiani Reijnders and Ilkay Gundogan, City lacked creativity and broke their shape from time to time, as Silva was observed pushing to provide support on the right flank while Gundogan's struggles to provide the same level of impact as before in his role continued.

Despite these issues, City managed to create 4 big chances in the first half, with one of them even leading to a goal. The Silva-Reijnders-Gundogan trio held their ground tremendously as they contained Hilal brilliantly, stopping them from creating a single big chance while also restricting them to 0 shots on target.

However, the beginning of the second half marked instant chaos as the midfield trio became ineffective and disoriented as Hilal targeted City's biggest weakness at the moment: their full-backs.

An out-of-position Matheus Nunes and an ageing Ilkay Gundogan struggled majorly during the initial minutes of the second half, forcing Guardiola to introduce changes even before the hour mark. Even Gvardiol had to be replaced after failing to impress in the centre-back role once again.

Even the early changes couldn't make any impact for City, with Rodri failing to provide any impact in his short cameo as he was forced off with another injury at the 200th-minute mark. While Rayan Cherki did help out in offence, the defence was still left in a vulnerable state, allowing Hilal to capitalise on the opportunity and grab a memorable win.