Manchester City have endured a tough spell of results over the past month.
Specifically, City have lost their four previous matches in all competitions, which is the first time a side led by Pep Guardiola has done so.
After seeing his team blow another 1-0 lead and lose 2-1 to Brighton & Hove Albion, Guardiola admitted City needed the November international break so the club could reset.
With domestic action set to resume this weekend, a pundit has pinpointed one particular phase of City’s poor run of form that has still left him baffled.
Ally McCoist still baffled by ‘bizarre’ Man City display against Sporting CP
While discussing City’s poor run of form in a recent talkSPORT video, Ally McCoist said this about what has baffled him the most from what he’s seen from the Blues over the past few weeks.
He said: “The one that did surprise me a little bit was the second-half performance over in Lisbon.
“Obviously, I know Haaland missed a penalty, they were all over the place in the second half defensively. The big lad missed one for Lisbon but at the same time, they should have been out of sight.
“And then the second half, a couple of really bizarre tackles from Gvardiol and Nunes. But they looked all over the place and I’ve never seen them like that.”
Guardiola said City were not emotionally ‘stable’ against Sporting
Phil Foden put his side 1-0 up in the first four minutes, but City went in at halftime with the score at 1-1. Then five minutes into the second period, the Blues conceded two more goals.
As McCoist mentioned, Haaland missed a penalty before the away side went on to score one at the other end to ultimately end the night with a 4-1 win for Ruben Amorim’s former side.
After the game, Guardiola criticised City for how they went on to concede their third and fourth goals against Sporting, saying this on the entire performance his side delivered on the night.
He said: “We made a fantastic first half. Now we are struggling to score when they create and we concede what the opponents not do much. Bournemouth aside as they were much, much better.
“The first half was really, really good. From my point of view, we scored a goal, and created a lot. But every pass, simple things, we miss sometimes.
“They can run, and they punished us a little bit. It can happen. After the third and the fourth, we have to avoid it.
“Emotionally we were not stable enough and in this competition, you have to be stable.
“2-1 is 2-1. Many minutes to happen, but we cannot give away the two actions for the third and fourth goal, we have to be emotionally more and more stable.”
In the second half, City may have had 70% possession and nine attempts at goal, but Sporting had four big chances compared to the one Guardiola’s side were able to register.
Taking all of that on board, it’s understandable why McCoist still can’t believe how off-colour City looked in Portugal last month.
