There aren’t many things that can go wrong at Manchester City. The club is set for a spell of dominance in English football for the foreseeable future and the basis that has been built in Pep’s two-year tenure will likely guarantee the Citizens supremacy for years to come.
However, if you dig deep enough and you look closely enough, you can probably find a few things which might go wrong for City next season. In this article we will do just that as we will look at three possible things which might complicate City’s 2018/19 EPL season.
De Bruyne Gets Injured
Kevin De Bruyne has been instrumental for City these past couple of years and Chelsea fans must be kicking themselves knowing that Jose Mourinho let the Belgian maestro leave the Blues on the cheap. However, Chelsea’s loss was City’s gain and boy did De Bruyne relish the chance he was given by Pep Guardiola.
In his time at City, he has operated all over the midfield five (or three, depending on how you interpret City’s formation), but he has been his most influential self when he was pulling the strings from the playmaker’s position.
However, if the young Belgian suffers an injury next season, it is quite possible that City’s game plan might become jeopardized. Losing De Bruyne to a long term injury must be considered as one of the possibilities for next season as the Belgian will definitely play an instrumental role for his national team at the World Cup and those extra games combined with the lack of rest and a proper pre-season might cause his body to be more injury prone.
Lack of Motivation
When teams go on infinite winning runs and win week in, week out, it is easy to lose focus and motivation. This seems to happen at Chelsea every other season as their players go from producing world class performances in the season in which they win a title or two, and then go on to produce abysmal performances in the next season.
This is a very real possibility at all title winning clubs and Manchester City is not immune to that. However, it is our opinion that Pep will never let this happen as he is a master man motivator who has spent years in the business and even if he cannot motivate a player the competition in his roster is so big that players will try to impress him even in friendlies in order to play.
Being Found Out
People say that winning the title is much easier than defending it. If you have a look at the odds the bookmakers are offering for which team will win the EPL next season, you can easily come to the conclusion that betting operators don’t agree with this, as they make City a stronger favourite than last year.
However, the Citizens must be prepared for teams being better prepared when they play against them now as their tactics and game plan will no longer catch them by surprise.