After winning four consecutive Premier League titles, Manchester City has fallen out of the title race with nearly half the season remaining. Following a crushing 5-1 defeat to Arsenal, club legend Thierry Henry addressed Pep Guardiola‘s mistake this season, stating, “He misses Julian Alvarez.”
Rodri’s absence has left Manchester City in disarray, leading many fans to speculate whether this is “the end of an era.” However, Henry sees things differently. While analyzing City’s current struggles on Sky Sports, the French legend shared his perspective:
“It’s annoying for people to go with ‘it’s the end of an era,’ it’s not the end of an era. They won 4 in a row, you can lose one, but it’s about how you lose. It’s never easy to watch a team stop winning. Because when you stop winning, sometimes it just looks wrong.
“People talk about Rodri. I don’t think Rodri is the only problem for Man City. I’ve said before: this man, Pep Guardiola, has made us forget about the legends, not just of City, but of the Premier League…Before, when you looked at City, you never said to yourself, ‘They’re missing Yaya Toure, they’re missing Sergio Aguero, David Silva, Vincent Kompany.’ Never! You thought, ‘Oh, today they were just unlucky,’” Henry stated, praising Guardiola’s squad management over the years.
However, this time, Henry believes City has failed to replace key departures effectively: “Now, you say they’re missing players who are less established than the ones I just mentioned. They miss Alvarez, they miss Mahrez… It’s more of a situation where you got some of the players in that didn’t got the talent of the players that left. And it’s the first time it has happened the same time where Rodri is injured.”
Henry concluded by emphasizing that, while City has hit a rough patch, this isn’t necessarily the end of their dominance. “But this is not the end of an era! It’s too early to say that. Have they fallen apart? Yes. Do they need to recover from this? Yes. Should they sign better players than the ones who came in? Yes. Does Rodri got to return? Yes. But for me, this is not the end of an era in terms of what Pep is trying to do,” said the former Arsenal striker.
Manchester City’s injury crisis
While Guardiola has struggled to manage key departures, injuries have also played a significant role in City’s turbulent season. Rodri’s absence, Alvarez’s move to Atletico Madrid, and club icons Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gündogan taking on reduced roles due to age have left City without the same dominance they once enjoyed.
Defensive injuries have been particularly damaging. First-choice defenders Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake, Ruben Dias, and John Stones have all struggled for fitness in recent months, forcing Guardiola to deploy midfielder Matheus Nunes as an emergency full-back.
In response to these defensive woes, City spent around $80 million to sign Vitor Reis and Abdukodir Khusanov, whose Premier League debut against Chelsea was far from convincing. With the league title seemingly out of reach but the Champions League still within grasp, Guardiola will have to rely on these new faces when City faces Real Madrid in what promises to be a season-defining clash.
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