Gary Nevile explains the possible reason behind Manchester City’s recent decline

At the start of this Premier League season, it was expected that it would be an open title race after Chelsea went on a spending spree and other sides also improved. But it was unpredictable that former champions Manchester City would be languishing in the bottom half of the table. It has been a disastrous start, the worst in any season since Pep Guardiola started his coaching career back in 2008.

Manchester City have scored just 10 goals in eight Premier League games this season – at the same stage of the last term, they had scored 27. You can see the massive difference in the numbers which clearly suggests that Manchester City is lacking some attacking firepower.

Manchester United legend Gary Neville feels that Manchester City has been slow in transition and over-reliant on Kevin De Bruyne along with Ederson’s lack of form.

Neville told Sky Sports about what’s wrong with Manchester City: “The biggest thing for me is in transition. They are not as quick at getting the ball back. Teams are more comfortable playing a pass through them and taking a risk. City used to be all over you like a rash when losing the ball or would just sustain attacks – but it’s less than it was before.”

“Ederson doesn’t look as comfortable in goal, he’s making mistakes he wouldn’t have made a couple of seasons ago. There seems too much reliance on Kevin De Bruyne. Something is not quite right.”

“Pep seems to be searching for the right combinations. A couple of seasons ago you could reel off the team: Sane, Sterling, Aguero, De Bruyne, Silva, Fernandinho, Kompany – you could tell what was going to happen each game.”

“I don’t get that feeling anymore that the fluidity and continuity is quite there.”

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City need to come up with new tactics and start performing on the pitch sooner than later to have any chance of fighting for the title or else it will be too late to make a comeback.