Mark Langdon: Fixing Man City's midfield is key to their trophy hunt

It has often been said that Pep Guardiola's ultimate dream team is a side packed full of midfielders, so he might need to go back to the future to get Manchester City on track this season.

Wednesday's poor performance in a 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa left City fourth in the Premier League, six points off the pace being set by Arsenal. It's not an insurmountable deficit and we have previously seen City come on strong in the second half of the season. However, it is extremely rare to see them anything like as bad as they were in midweek.

City were totally dominated by Villa. The shot count of 22-2 in Villa's favour was so far out of the norm that it looked like a computer error, and it was 7-2 efforts on target, with an expected goals figure of 2.3-0.6 according to fbref.com.

Guardiola's side have lost matches before and will do so again, but generally speaking they dominate the game and then get caught on the counter attack. This was different and follows other recent odd performances in high-scoring draws against Chelsea and Tottenham, which finished 4-4 and 3-3, when City lacked the control so often demanded by their obsessive boss. 

The easiest conclusion to draw is that City are struggling for motivation following their treble success of last season and pundit Gary Neville has alluded to his own Manchester United team suffering a similar malaise after that euphoric night in Barcelona where their own treble was completed in 1999.

However, the mind can play funny games and the stats don't support the theory. United won the league by 18 points in 2000 with a haul of 91, which is their best ever effort in a 38-match campaign, so losing focus after winning the treble may have been an issue in training but on the pitch Neville and co were as ruthless as ever.

It seems unlikely that City could just go through the motions under the ever-demanding Guardiola anyway and it might have more to do with his overall midfield tinkerings as well as the continued absence of Kevin De Bruyne.

Guardiola's memorable Barcelona team had the Busquets-Xavi-Iniesta midfield and his City side which reached the pinnacle was built on Rodri sitting behind Ilkay Gundogan and De Bruyne. But it's not just about those in the traditional engine-room positions and Guardiola would normally find a way to fit in as many midfielders as possible. He once said: "In all my career, I have played with a lot of midfield players. I have the feeling that you can play better with this."

With Gundogan gone, De Bruyne injured and Rodri suspended, Guardiola's team of centre-backs replaced a team of midfielders and at Villa Park it could be argued Bernardo Silva was the only true midfielder. Rico Lewis is just as comfortable at full-back, Phil Foden is nearly always used out wide and forward Julian Alvarez behind Erling Haaland. What does that say about Guardiola's faith in summer signings Mateo Kovacic and Matteus Nunes as well as England's Kalvin Phillips? Alvarez, as good as he is, could also be an issue as the World Cup-winning striker gives the team less balance. 

Being fourth in the Premier League is bad enough for City but, being only three points ahead of United shows just how far they have slipped this season.

Guardiola usually finds the solution, but for once it might be that he needs to select more midfielders.

Premier League predictions

Both teams to score & over 2.5 goals in Brighton v Burnley Evs

Burnley's success rate in this market (47 per cent) is near enough at evens anyway but gung-ho Brighton are running at 80 per cent with 12 of 15 games seeing both teams score and over 2.5 goals. 

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