Manchester City Need To Show Their Champions League Credentials Against Juventus

We’re over a third of the way through the Premier League season and two-thirds of the Champions League group stages are done going into this week’s matches. Yet it still doesn’t feel as if we know Manchester City at all.

All that we can say with certainty is that conceding four goals at home in a league match for the first time in over a decade is not the ideal warm up for visiting the Italian champions. If you were of the opinion that this week’s Champions League visit to Juventus was merely of cosmetic importance (and this column was certainly not a subscriber to that point of view), then you should be ready to admit that it means much more now.

It’s hard to know what’s more difficult to believe about the Premier League campaign to date; that Leicester City are top, or that Manchester City aren’t. Whether you’re measuring in terms of the breathtaking quality of Manuel Pellegrini’s squad on paper or on the heights that they’ve touched when they have got it right this season, City should be top of the table and cruising towards a third title in five years already.

Saturday’s defeat at home to Liverpool was as perplexing as it gets. If the result looked bad on paper, then the performance was even worse. Pellegrini, as much as his players, has to carry the can for that.

Jon Super/Associated Press/Associated Press

Even allowing for the principles of rotation (and why, frankly, would a Champions League tie when you’ve already qualified be more important than a significant Premier League home match?), the decision to leave out Nicolas Otamendi was a baffling one. La Liga’s best defender last season, Otamendi has been excellent in sky blue thus far, and he would have added authority to a harried back line that lacked any whatsoever. Aleksandar Kolarov and Bacary Sagna also looked all at sea against the pressing of Jurgen Klopp’s team.

The contrast with Liverpool, who played a very similar XI to the one which recently won at Chelsea (give or take the injured Mamadou Sakho), was marked. Despite being in charge for only a matter of weeks, Klopp seems already to have an idea of his best side.

Pellegrini should be advanced of that, but he didn’t seem to be on Saturday. It is easy—and to a large extent, justifiable—to point to Vincent Kompany’s continuing struggles with a calf injury as an issue. He, after all, has played a huge part in Otamendi’s smooth adaptation to Premier League life.

Yet choice does come into it. Fernandinho was greatly missed in the decisive first half against Liverpool, when City looked ponderous and devoid of character in midfield. In his stead, his compatriot Fernando singularly failed to provide the bite and poise required.

This is especially relevant to the confrontation with Juve is for two reasons. Firstly, just how good Fernandinho is was abundantly clear in the match that assured safe passage to the Champions League’s last 16, the resounding win at Sevilla.

Secondly, City’s performance in that game showed just how far Pellegrini has developed the team in a European competition context, the previous lack of which is exactly what has led to continued speculation over his long-term future at the club.

That win at Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan really is one of the underrated performances of the season so far in the Champions League. In an atmosphere that often makes mice of the very best teams—it did so to Real Madrid in La Liga this season—City were scintillating.

With significantly less possession, they were as incisive as could be imagined, having twice as many shots as their hosts and getting a whopping 11 efforts on target, per WhoScored.com. That they did this without the injured Sergio Aguero or Kevin De Bruyne (the Belgian came on as a second-half substitute with the game all but sewn up) made it even more impressive.

Miguel Angel Morenatti/Associated Press/Associated Press

Yaya Toure excelled in the advanced role, Jesus Navas and Raheem Sterling were outstanding on the flanks and behind them—with Fernando sweeping up well—Fernandinho looked every inch the box-to-fox force of nature that he can be, making important tackles and storming into the Sevilla penalty box to make his presence felt. Wilfried Bony played a strong part too.

Much of the season has been spent with the English wringing their hands at Premier League sides’ difficulties in the Champions League. Here was a side whose performance screamed out that they could be a genuine contender but credit was relatively thin on the ground—perhaps because of Arsenal’s and, to a lesser extent, Chelsea’s and Manchester United’s stutters.

City’s task in Turin is to show that Sevilla was no accident. Normally, this is the stage of the Champions League where they are scrambling to make up lost ground, but that isn’t the case this time around—so they can make a statement instead. 

Nobody is yet saying (and nor should they be) that Pellegrini’s side are approaching the level of Bayern Munich or Barcelona, but Juventus themselves proved just last season exactly what could be done with talent and canny management.

Pellegrini’s work in the Champions League—and that’s what’s relevant to this week—has suggested he might be able to do the same. This week, City can also prove how much they learned in the opening-night defeat to Juve at the Etihad, when they dominated large portions of the game yet were picked off by smarter opponents.

This match matters—not just in terms of pride and prestige, but in terms of City’s future. If they’re not going to walk their way to their Premier League title (and if they do ultimately fail to capture it, it will be a heinous waste), then they need to make reparation for that fact elsewhere.

The only place that can be is in the Champions League. Manchester City have had the pieces for a while, and now they have the plan. It’s time to prove that they can be this season’s Juventus.