The Manchester City midfield situation simply isn’t sustainable

Manchester City beat Fulham last night 5-4 at Craven Cottage last night. The match was the ideal advertisement for the Premier League as the game showcased everything special about England’s top flight. While the game was a spectacle, coming out of the match there were several areas of concern that stood out for Pep Guardiola’s side. One is that the midfield situation and the workload on Nico aren’t sustainable. Pep Guardiola needs to find a solution to help ease the burden on Nico and give his team more legs in midfield.

Manchester City need to find reliable support for Nico.

Nico has been a warrior for his team so far this season. The opportunity to play regularly has come his way with Mateo Kovacic suffering a serious injury and Rodri continuing to fight his way back to full fitness. In their absence, Nico has become one of the most important players in Pep Guardiola’s side. The problem is that the number of minutes that Nico is playing isn’t sustainable. He had to be replaced in the 64th minute of last night’s match against Fulham. John Stones took his place in the heart of Manchester City’s midfield. From that point onwards Fulham scored two goals to make it 5-4, and they pinned City deep in their own half during last night’s match. City lost what little control they had in midfield when Nico was substituted. That is one issue that isn’t sustainable for Pep Guardiola’s side and their midfield.

The other issue with the Manchester City midfield is how easy it is to play through. The players who are playing with Nico are routinely being caught out of position when City turn the ball over. Phil Foden and Tijjani Reijnders do their best work going forward. Foden to his credit, has tracked back when required. Tijjani Reijnders is still honing this side of his game. As much as Bernardo Silva gives 110% for his team in any role he is tasked with playing, at times it does seem that he can’t keep up with the pace of Manchester City’s opponents. You do sense that Nico could benefit from having a more athletic player playing alongside him in midfield to help Nico’s game and to bolster the legs in the City engine room. Pep Guardiola did speak of a potential solution to this issue after last night’s match.