The Truth: Has Manchester City's Squad Building Finally Failed?

It's time for The Truth! With Manchester City coming into the international break having lost four games in a row for the first time under Pep Guardiola, Sam Tighe and Dougie Critchley take a deep dive into what exactly is going on in the blue side of Manchester, and if they can recover their sparkling form to win a fifth title in a row. Whilst the injuries to key players - namely Rodri and Kevin de Bruyne - have obviously played a huge role in this poor streak, is there something deeper going on? Pep has always liked to work with a smaller squad than usual, but have they pushed the boundaries too far in not finding adequate replacements for key men in a time of strife? There's also further questions - have City gone too hard on bringing in players who can create within the system and left them short in terms of goalscoring options outside of Erling Haaland? And why has John Stones not really been utilised in defensive midfield given the obvious deficiencies there in Rodri's absence? So, is this a question of poor squad planning finally getting the better of Manchester City's tight-knit unit? Is Pep being too stubborn with his choices in playing an aging midfield who look physically deficient? Or are City maybe not quite as good as they were last year? The Truth is somewhere in the middle... And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.