3 Biggest Worries for Manchester City's 2015/16 Season so Far

It’s fair to say this could be a hugely significant week in Manchester City’s season.

Having beaten Bournemouth 5-1 at the Etihad Stadium on a Saturday, a result that ensured their Premier League campaign got straight back to winning ways after the latest international break, they face Sevilla at home on Wednesday in a crucial Champions League match before taking on Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday.

United sit just two points behind them in the table despite a somewhat shaky start to the new campaign, meaning City cannot afford to lose.

To say it's a week that will define their season may be a touch dramatic, but there’s no doubting its importance. Two positive results and City are likely to be in a strong position heading into November, both domestically and in Europe.

So far, this season has been a huge improvement on 2014/15. Manuel Pellegrini, who was under fire toward the end of the last campaign, and Txiki Begiristain, the club’s sporting director who was also being criticised for what some saw as an inability to attract the right players, executed a very good transfer window. City look far better for it. Pace, urgency and vibrancy in attack—they are a force going forward once more.

Their start was flawless. Five straight league wins and not a goal conceded, there were some who were polishing the trophy and attaching sky-blue ribbons already. However, in this ultra-competitive Premier League, which has been enriched by the sizeable TV deal set to kick in next season, there’s nothing straightforward or predictable. There have been setbacks, and there will be more along the way.

Overall, 21 points from nine league games, three points from their two Champions League fixtures and a place in the Round 4 of the League Cup represents a solid, if unspectacular, start.

So what have been the main problems City need to fix in order to improve their chances of landing the silverware the club and Pellegrini desperately crave?

1. Defensive shape

Those first five league games, which saw their goals-against column remain untouched, seem a while away now. City look shaky at the back and have done for a few weeks, something that will surely be causing Pellegrini concern.

It began in the 2-1 defeat at home against Juventus. Vincent Kompany left the field injured with the game at 1-1, and City were undone on the break once more, with Alvaro Morata hitting a superb winner.

Without Kompany, City have often looked all at sea. West Ham United beat them at the Etihad, Tottenham Hotspur inflicted on them the worst defeat of the Sheikh Mansour era and although they managed to beat Borussia Monchengladbach with a last-gasp penalty from Sergio Aguero, the German side were allowed way too much space and cut through the City back line too easily in the first half.

Nicolas Otamendi needs time to adapt after his summer move from Valencia, and Eliaquim Mangala, who started the season superbly, still switches off from time to time. Together, they’ve looked too rash and haven’t provided the kind of solid platform a side looking to win multiple pieces of silverware requires.

Pellegrini desperately needs to find a way of shoring up what looks like a leaky defence.

Kompany’s organisation, it seems, is key. He may have struggled last season, but he provides a calmness and leadership that is vital in City’s defence being at its best.

Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

2. Muscle injuries

City’s injury list this season has been way too long. They will get little sympathy from outside the club given they are big spenders, but the plethora of injuries their players have suffered has negatively impacted their start to the season.

Kompany, Aguero, Pablo Zabaleta, Gael Clichy, Yaya Toure, Fernando, Samir Nasri, Fabian Delph, Joe Hart, David Silva, Kelechi Iheanacho and Fernandinho have all been injured this season. It’s a remarkable list that must surely be a worry to Pellegrini. 

There is a real problem with Kompany in particular. He has suffered 25 separate injuries in the last three-and-a-half years, including 10 calf problems. Clearly, something is not right.

Pellegrini recently suggested his all-action, committed style is a significant part of the problem and that trying to get his captain to hold back, both in training and on the pitch, is a difficult task.

“Vincent plays with 100 per cent intensity, not just every game but every training session,” Pellegrini said prior to City’s recent match with West Ham. “That’s the way he always works.

“It’s difficult [for him to ease off]. It is not easy for him. He tries sometimes not to be always 100 per cent intensity, but you cannot change.

“It is always important [not] to have injured players, especially the captain and especially in a moment when we didn’t concede any goals in the first five games. I think it is important to carry on playing with the same names, but I always say we have a squad.”

The club’s medical staff desperately needs to find a solution.

On Saturday, Pellegrini went into the match with Bournemouth without a recognised left-back. Bacary Sagna filled in ably, but it was a far from ideal situation, with both Clichy and Aleksandar Kolarov unavailable. 

Luck, of course, plays a part in injuries. Sometimes, it’s just a run of misfortune that causes a side’s fitness problems, but at City the list is too long.

Muscle injuries tend to be the problem, and according to Roberto Martinez, the Everton manager who is also a trained physiotherapist, if a club is suffering soft-tissue injuries on a frequent basis, the medical team should be expected to find a solution.

He told Matt Lawton of the Daily Mail:

"

You get accidents in football, collisions that cause injuries that can't be avoided. But even then if your body is right it will react quicker to the treatment and recover faster. I don't believe in soft-tissue injuries. If you get a soft-tissue injury in football, a mistake has been made. It could be the training programme, a lifestyle problem. Whatever it is, it will be a mistake.

At this club we are below the average for injuries in the Premier League. It's important. It helps.

"

City's injury problems are on the brink of crisis stage, and if Martinez is to be believed, the club must take responsibility.

Matthew Ashton - AMA/Getty Images

3. Champions League form

City’s Champions League form has consistently let them down since their accession into the competition back in 2011.

Last season, they played eight matches in Europe, but there was only really one night that saw City deliver emphatically in the style we know they’re capable of.

The 2-0 win against Roma aside, City were abject and short of tactical nous. They tend to play within themselves on the biggest stage, seemingly unsure of what it is that has made them a dominant domestic force in recent years.

Is it a lack of belief? Is it a lack of tactical astuteness? There have been various theories put forward, but if their recent game with Monchengladbach is anything to go by, they are still some distance away from making an impact in the latter stages. City may have won the game and displayed spirit and desire, but it was hardly the performance of a side set to improve on the last-16 place they have managed in the last two seasons.

With City’s owners now desperate to begin transferring their domestic quality onto the European stage, Pellegrini will surely be feeling the pressure to deliver. A quarter-final place is surely the minimum target this time out.

Playing a three-man midfield—Fernando, Fernandinho and Toure—would likely help. City have too often been outnumbered and outmanoeuvred in the middle in Europe, and the addition of Fernando, an out-and-out defensive midfielder, would surely steady things.

Jon Super/Associated Press

Overall, Pellegrini can be pleased with his side’s start to the season, but clearly there are areas he will be keen to improve. If they can, City will almost certainly win silverware this season.

Champions League progression will be key, though, and City look no closer to cracking the code. Pellegrini is likely to be judged on his ability to improve his side’s fortune in Europe’s elite club competition. Wednesday’s game with Sevilla would be a great time for City to start showing they mean business.

Rob Pollard is Bleacher Report's lead Manchester City correspondent and will be following the club from a Manchester base throughout the 2015/16 season. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @RobPollard_.