Man City rebuild: Why Pep Guardiola needs to start squad overhaul in January transfer window

Manchester City expert Steven McInerney from Esteemed Kompany has explained why Pep Guardiola needs to start a rebuild of his squad in the January transfer window.

Guardiola’s side finally got back to winning ways in Sunday’s Premier League away clash against relegation-threatened Leicester City.

Savinho netted a first-half opener before Erling Haaland found the net in the 74th minute to end his four-game goal drought and wrap up a much-needed 2-0 victory at the King Power Stadium.

While Man City would have been relieved to clinch all three points, the result only papered over the cracks in what has been a disappointing campaign up until this point.

Having collected 31 points from 19 matches, Man City will begin the new year in fifth place in the Premier League table – four points adrift of the top four and 14 points behind leaders Liverpool.

Time for a rebuild at Man City

Man City’s recent poor form has raised questions about whether the club need to refresh a squad that has a number of ageing stars like Kyle Walker, Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne.

McInerney believes that the club should kick start the rebuild at the earliest opportunity as well as focus on limiting the damage by targeting a top-four finish.

“Success is top four for City now,” McInerney told Sports Mole. “They’re not going to get any higher than that. It would be catastrophic for City if they didn’t finish in the top four. They have to finish top four, Champions League football.

“But that’s what City would deem success now, given everything. And yeah, it has to be signings, because it’s very obvious that some of these players either a) can’t stay fit; b) are too old; c) don’t have the quality; or d) aren’t reacting to Guardiola any more because they’ve been around him for too long – and none of those things are good things.

“The midfield is old and tired, and I don’t think there’s any guarantee, sadly, that Rodri is going to be Rodri when he comes back. He probably will be fine, but he’ll be nearly 30 by the time he comes back, and it could take him the best part of a year to find his form again.

“I think you’ve got to presume the worst-case scenario, that Rodri won’t be Rodri for at least another year from now. So bearing that in mind, and bearing in mind you don’t get a summer anymore with pre-season and so on, I just don’t see why you wouldn’t start [a rebuild] in January. Just get cracking and start. If you can find the right players, just start.”

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Why Man City need a “massive overhaul”

Savinho contributed to Man City’s recent win over Leicester, scoring his first Premier League goal since arriving from sister club Girona in the summer.

While Savinho has shown promise, McInerney believes that the club cannot solely rely on players like the Brazilian, insisting that Man City need to move away from their small squad strategy by signing players to add greater depth to Guardiola’s options.

“At this point, there’s no point pretending that the squad doesn’t need a massive overhaul. I know City spend a lot of money, but over the past five years, they genuinely have had ridiculous like net spend.

“I think they’re in profit on transfers over the past five years because of all the academy players and Sterling, Jesus, Zinchenko and so on, but at some point that only gets you so far.

“Big teams win and they spend a lot of money, and that’s where City have been. They do it well and they invest well, but I think City have not done that for a long time.

“They’ve tried to but they’ve got it wrong; people like Nunes and Phillips haven’t hit the same way and I think the only way this is going to change is, unfortunately, just accepting that you probably can’t rely on a bunch of veterans who have been there so many times or some players who are probably too young to be lent on.

“You can’t lean on Savinho, who’s just joined. You can’t lean on Rico Lewis, he’s very young. Even Josko Gvardiol, with all his quality, is still pretty young and he’s there every single week.

“I think you have to accept that they have to start signing some players because the squad’s too small, even regardless of the players and the personnel, it is just too small.

“There are holes in the squad given the amount of football, and I think some of these players have sadly shown that they are just a season too far. That happens, that’s normal, I’m not going to panic over it, but at some point you’ve just got to admit it.”

While it remains to be seen how active Man City are in the January window, Guardiola will be preparing his current crop of players for Saturday’s home game against West Ham United.

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