Conceding 10 goals in 4 games! Why did Manchester City's defense pull its hips? Without these two people, Gua Shuai's offensive reinforcement is inevitable

Manchester City's defensive system is in trouble? Yes, they have conceded just 14 goals in their first 18 matches this season, conceding 10 goals in their last four matches. In a strong clash against Tottenham last weekend, they drew 3-3 with their opponents. There are many reasons for this situation, but in general, there are the following directions, let's take a look at them together.

First, without them, Manchester City's offensive system has to change

De Bruyne's injury, along with Gundogan's departure, has had a huge impact on Manchester City. Judging from the current personnel structure, they are the ones who can send out longitudinal transmission, and can complete combing and forward insertion. And they are also the key to supporting Haaland's longitudinal impact.

In their absence, City's attacking system needs to change. Pep Guardiola's answer was to increase the depth of the wings: bring in multi-reservoirs, and then reuse Foden, who is good at rib work. This was also a key reason why City let go of Riyad Mahrez (including Palmer with a similar style) and Grealish fell out of favour.

But Manchester City's system must increase the rib work, and the B seat that is arranged in the back position, and even Rodri, must continue to move forward.

This increase in offensive strength has brought about a reduction in defensive strength, and the midfield has a lack of a protection point, which makes the structure of attacking and defending problematic.

Second, Stones' injury and Walker's forward insertion

Manchester City's midfield system, which allows a defender to move forward to the midfield position when attacking with the ball, has been the most effective before John Stones. However, John Stones has suffered an injury before and is not in great form at the moment.

Pep Guardiola experimented with teenager Lewis and central defender Akanji, but the effect was not good.

More critically, Walker is getting older and more forward-plugged. Walker has an excellent ability to protect the ball, but with a decline in physical performance and an increase in attacking forwards, City have lost a chase maniac that limits the opponent's quick possession/forward points.

Third, the little spider has a heavy responsibility on his shoulders, but his accuracy is a problem

In Manchester City's 442 system, the little spider is a second striker, and it is a tandem point with a super wide range of activities. Admittedly, the Spiders have shown a very good turnaround, and even have a tendency to become a top two-striker/attacking wing-midfielder.

But at present, there are still some problems with the accuracy of the little spider in holding the ball and dividing the ball.

De Bruyne will also miss some balls, but more often than not, aiming for the depth of the opponent's passes. After the opponent destroyed and intercepted, Manchester City still had two blockade lines on the periphery: midfielders and defenders. But the spider's tandem mistake made it easy for the opponent to bypass Manchester City's midfield interception and attack the back line head-on.

At this time, the aforementioned Manchester City midfield problems began to show again.

Fourth, how to rectify?

Judging from the current situation, the trend of Manchester City's increasing investment in attack will not change, and the team wants to improve the defense, which can be improved in the following aspects:

1. Increase the success rate of the frontcourt, at which point, Grealish needs to get more playing time. Against Tottenham, he showed a better passing ability than Doku;

2. Stones found his form as soon as possible, and then let Gvardiol/Ake and others increase rotation to ensure running defense and anti-body performance;

3. Guardiola reorganized, used a new system to achieve a new round of offensive and defensive balance, and then completed the suppression and attack.