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Hello! The blows keep coming for Manchester City and the wounds are showing on Pep Guardiola.
On the way:
- November rain at the Etihad
- Bellingham’s media beef
- The Barca crowd stand-off
- Another Coote probe
City’s head-scratcher: Guardiola’s side in history-making collapse
If you know the film Full Metal Jacket, you’ll remember the scene where they pin down Private Pyle in his bed and attack him with bars of soap. Everybody takes a shot, even Private Joker.
That’s Manchester City: so visibly vulnerable that teams playing them are almost obliged to have a go. They have gone a month without a win, six games and counting. A 3-3 draw with Feyenoord last night had Pep Guardiola scratching his head, to the literal point of emerging afterwards with marks on his scalp and a cut on his nose (above).
The good news is he made history. The bad news, as pointed out by Opta, is that he did so by City becoming the first side to lead a Champions League match 3-0 after 75 minutes but fail to see it out. Guardiola will get a grip eventually, but City’s slump has strayed well into a textbook crisis. “We’re fragile,” Guardiola said, and solutions are eluding him.
The most worrying thing is the deterioration of basic functions. Take Feyenoord’s 89th-minute equaliser. City’s defensive line (below) when the ball is played through is a comical dogleg.
At the point where David Hancko shapes to score (below), they’re outnumbered five to two. At 3-2 up, it’s not as if they were chasing the game either.
City are off the pace in every respect. Rodri’s absence from the midfield is killing them and the longer this goes on, the less it looks like an overnight fix is at Guardiola’s fingertips. He’s Private Pyle with the blanket over him, quietly praying for the blows to stop.
What are PSG doing?
Guardiola can at least find solace in City’s years of dominance. Not so Paris Saint-Germain, whose dreams of global superiority are long gone.
PSG saw themselves winning the Champions League and to be fair, they almost did. But having pinned their colours to Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Lionel Messi, that chance has gone and so have those players.
These days, they’re a shell of a European force. A 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich yesterday means they are at risk of falling short of the Champions League’s new knockout stage altogether. Oli Kay is asking where the PSG project is going.
Lewandowski’s ton of fun
Some yin to the yang of European misery: Robert Lewandowski has joined the 100 club, going past a century of Champions League goals in Barcelona’s 3-0 win over Brest.
Lewandowski has Peter Pan vibes. The first of his strikes was so long ago, in 2011, that Guardiola was still coaching Barca at the time. At 36, he won’t catch Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, but in a group of three players to reach the 100-goal mark, he’s not at all out of place.
News round-up
- The Football Association has launched another probe into suspended Premier League referee David Coote. This one relates to an alleged betting breach. Coote strongly refutes any wrongdoing.
- If he gets the fine details sorted, Frank Lampard will be back in management shortly. The former Chelsea and Everton boss is poised to take over at Championship side Coventry City.
- Rampant cost-cutting at Manchester United has taken effect off the pitch. They made a profit in the first quarter of 2024-25 — compared to a loss of almost £33million ($42m) 12 months earlier.
- Brad Friedel’s reign as Besiktas sporting director was short-lived. The Turkish club have binned the ex-USMNT goalkeeper after five months. Their season isn’t going well.
- Defender Gabriel stole Viktor Gyokeres’ thunder and his celebration as Arsenal battered Sporting CP 5-1 in the Champions League — but then limped off injured.
Stand-off: Barca ban fans and aim to recoup fine cash
A few members of the Barcelona faithful were denied the pleasure of watching Lewandowski reach his century. Part of Barca’s temporary Montjuic home — their stadium while they renovate Camp Nou — has been closed to supporters as a consequence of poor behaviour.
At face value, nothing new there — stadium closures have happened elsewhere — but where this differs is because it is Barca’s decision to leave seats empty. To add to the intrigue, the club are refusing to reopen the section until fans cough up for fines they’ve incurred.
From the start of last season, incidents in that area of the stadium (no fewer than 14, Barca say) have resulted in punishments from various governing bodies totalling £18,000. Again, we see a lot of this. Scotland’s Celtic, for example, have a trail of UEFA fines behind them. What we never see is clubs attempting to recoup that money from the supporters responsible.
Barca intend to stand firm until the bill is paid. The fans they’re targeting aren’t willing to settle it. I’m keen to see when and how the impasse resolves itself and whether Barca’s bid to make their crowd take a financial disciplinary hit tempts other teams to follow their lead.
Bell’s toll: ‘I was England’s scapegoat’
It has been a while since we spoke about Jude Bellingham in Ballon d’Or terms. When the award was handed out last month, he wasn’t in the conversation, despite a phenomenal first season with Real Madrid.
Would he have gone closer had England won the final of Euro 2024, rather than losing to Rodri’s Spain? Possibly, and you wonder if the events of the summer dragged Bellingham down. Like Real themselves, Bellingham is experiencing a fairly flat campaign. Tactical changes haven’t helped him, but he did not score in his opening 12 Real Madrid appearances this season.
Mentally, there’s clearly some scar tissue from the Euros. Bellingham touched on it at a press conference yesterday, claiming he was the scapegoat for England’s failure to go all the way at the tournament and criticising the English press for hassling his family during it. “My mother didn’t want to leave the house,” he said, explaining why he abruptly refused to do interviews.
It never takes much for the relationship between England’s players and its media to strain. Gareth Southgate realised that and tried to keep it smooth by instigating darts games between the two camps. Bellingham is one of the country’s brightest stars and he is only 21, but already it seems like battle lines have been drawn.
Made for Messi?
Javier Mascherano to Inter Miami is signed and sealed. He replaces Gerardo Martino as head coach, through 2027.
I’m not saying it’s a bad appointment, I just can’t give you a reason for it being an especially good appointment. Given that Mascherano, the former Barcelona and Argentina midfielder, is such a big mate of Lionel Messi, the cynic in you thinks it’s all a bit cosy.
Miami’s co-owner, Jorge Mas, admitted last week that he wanted Messi to “feel comfortable with the new coach coming in”, so you could say there’s no pretence. And maybe this just underlines the way in which Miami are leveraging their golden goose. Nothing is better for business than Messi being happy and on board, not even an MLS Cup.
Mascherano is an interesting character. He was a fine footballer in his time (and he was also connected to one of the most controversial Premier League transfers), but he is not a proven first-team boss. Miami choosing him makes you question how much the tail is wagging the dog.
Around The Athletic FC
- If you haven’t encountered the Baller League, time to get on the bandwagon. It’s a six-on-six tournament, it’s built for the YouTube massive and it’s coming to the U.S. and the UK. Roll up to see KSI, IShowSpeed, Angry Ginge, Sharky and other cultural giants.
- Before Saturday’s friendly between England and the USWNT (welcome home, Emma Hayes), Megan Feringa has taken a look at how many of the Lionesses were made in the USA. They have plenty to thank the American scene for.
- Douglas Luiz and Alisha Lehmann leaving Aston Villa for Juventus in the summer is a rare example of a romantically involved couple completing identical moves in the same window. Their transfers are not working out. Douglas Luiz is back at Villa in the Champions League later.
- I’m pleased Anantaajith Raghuraman has done a takedown of Southampton’s errors because the first goal they conceded to Liverpool on Sunday was beyond atrocious. Smell the coffee, boys.
- Most clicked in yesterday’s TAFC: this debacle of a League One transfer.
Catch A Match (Times ET/UK)
(Selected games)
Champions League (all Paramount+/TNT Sports unless stated): Crvena Zvezda vs Stuttgart, 12.45pm/5.45pm; Aston Villa vs Juventus, 3pm/8pm; Celtic vs Club Brugge, 3pm/8pm; Liverpool vs Real Madrid, 3pm/8pm — Paramount+, Fubo/TNT Sports; Monaco vs Benfica, 3pm/8pm — CBS, Paramount+, Amazon Prime/TNT Sports.
Championship: Leeds United vs Luton Town, 2.45pm/7.45pm – Paramount+/Sky Sports.
(Top photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images)
