Manuel Pellegrini Must Ensure Manchester City Points and Performance vs. QPR

Premier League champions they might be, but all is not well at Manchester City at present, with Manuel Pellegrini's team having lost three of their last four games in all competitions and staring at yet another Champions League group-stage exit.

Giving up two points at CSKA Moscow two weeks ago was a missed opportunity in Europe for Pellegrini and Co., but the home defeat to the same opposition was merely a continuance of the inability the club has shown to compete on the biggest stage of all.

With an away match at relegation-strugglers Queens Park Rangers next up for City, Pellegrini must find the answers to get his team not only back to winning ways but also showing the style and verve that made them league champions just six months ago. Should he fail, the questioning of his methods and his players will only increase dramatically.

Champions League, Premier League

City are third in the league table, with no crisis visible when only their form in this competition is looked at. They have won four out of their last five games, and last weekend saw a Manchester derby victory over United, 1-0. Six points off the leaders, Chelsea, is not an insurmountable gap at this stage though they could ill-afford any sloppy points to be dropped.

Alex Livesey/Getty Images

As a whole, though, City's form is way below the expected level; following defeat to West Ham United two weeks ago, the draw at CSKA and a League Cup defeat to Newcastle, their win over Manchester United was nerve-racking and in doubt right until the final whistle despite playing against 10 men.

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Manchester City have lost 3 of their last 4 in all competitions,but have also only won 5 of last 14: Sheff Wed, Hull, Spurs, Villa, Man Utd.

— Karl Matchett (@karlmatchett) November 6, 2014"

In Europe, that nervousness and lack of surety over their own performances has extended from the past couple of seasons into this one, and they sit bottom of their group with games against Roma and Bayern Munich to come.

By the end of their fifth match in the group, they could already be eliminated at the earliest possible stage.

Basement Battle

QPR might be 19th in the league, but they won't be easy opposition for City. Not because they are filled with quality—they're not—but because Rangers will sense an opportunity to upset a big club, the players (and fans) will respond to the challenge of facing a better team and because recent performances against Liverpool and Aston Villa will convince the home side they are capable of getting a result against an out-of-form opponent.

Ian Walton/Getty Images

Harry Redknapp's team are strong and direct; the front two combination of Bobby Zamora and Charlie Austin is predictable, but that doesn't mean it's containable, especially with City conceding chances with alarming regularity at present.

Yaya Toure and Fernandinho have both been off the boil in midfield this season, while David Silva is out injured. QPR will try to flood this central zone, win the ball quickly and go direct to the front men to link up.

Physically and emotionally, QPR will play against Manchester City's current weak points and hope to score in the knowledge that the pressure that City's players are under will make a single goal against them feel like the unbearable weight of "here we go again."

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Pellegrini: "I don't want to have any excuses for the way we played. I don't want to link the referee with the result."

— Phil McNulty (@philmcnulty) November 5, 2014"

Pellegrini

The buck stops with the manager in football, always.

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Pellegrini, @MCFC: "I don’t think we saw the team that we normally see. We rarely had a shot and we conceded easy goals." #UCL

— Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) November 5, 2014"

Roberto Mancini won the FA Cup and the Premier League with City yet shortly afterward was out on his way to pastures new, dismissed by the club. Pellegrini might have claimed another title last season, but he has admitted his team face "a crisis of confidence," per Phil McNulty of BBC Sport, and was clearly unhappy with the way his team played in midweek.

Alex Livesey/Getty Images

They are lacking tempo, lacking real chances created and, strangely for City, lacking goalscorers.

During their seven matches in a busy October, only two players aside from Sergio Aguero and Toure managed to find the target. One was Silva, currently out injured, and the other was James Milner. Forwards Edin Dzeko and Stevan Jovetic have not been in form—certainly not goalscoring form—and Pellegrini's constant changes in the lineup have not yielded a successful style or indeed many combinations in different areas of the pitch.

Between now and the new year, City have to turn around their fortunes with not just wins but performances, too, if Pellegrini is to convince that he has what it takes not only to drag City to the next level in Europe but also to keep them at their current one domestically.

Follow @karlmatchett