5 Issues Manchester City Need to Work on During November International Break

Manchester City are victims of their own success.

Four years ago, if City were entrenched in third place in the league table and struggling to find their footing in the Champions League, it would have been seen as necessary growing pains.

The downside to winning two Premier League titles, an FA Cup and a League Cup is that the expectations are ramped up to the point of absurdity.

Barring something unusual occurring, Chelsea are going to win the league title this season, and City are either going to qualify for the Europa League or fall out of Europe entirely. It will make for a dull season, but not a catastrophic one, should all that come to pass.

There are even whispers about Pellegrini's job security, and you know down is up when Joey Barton is the voice of reason.

Since this is still Pellegrini's job, here are some things City should be working on during this latest international break.

Squad Rotation

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Even if City want to sell Nastasic, they need to play him to re-establish his value.

Vincent Kompany, David Silva and Edin Dzeko are injured as of this writing. Not coincidentally, City have played 11 Premier League matches, and all three of those players have appeared in at least nine of them.

For that matter, Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero have missed one league match between them. If the plan is to play all five of these players 34-36 times in league play this season, that is a horrible plan.

At the bottom of City's squad list, Matija Nastasic and Dedryck Boyata have yet to appear in a league match this season. Summer signee Bacary Sagna has only made three league starts; Stevan Jovetic has only made four.

Pellegrini needs to figure out some way to get use out of the end of his bench before long-term injuries to his stars force him to do so full-time.

Fix Eliaquim Mangala and Fernando

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Mangala cost too much money to be this ineffective.

"The players that have come in under Txiki (Begiristain) and Ferran Soriano have not really made a huge impact," said Stuart Brennan of the Manchester Evening News recently. "But the two who principally came in this summer Mangala and Fernando, people are judging them a bit hastily if you ask me."

Yes and no.

Yes, because 11 league matches and four Champions League matches are probably less than a third of the meaningful matches these players could participate in this season.

No, because their absences from and performances in those matches to date are a big part of the reason why City's season is already threatening to be a big disappointment.

Pellegrini must find some way to elicit the best form of both of these players, quickly. When a club has the Financial Fair Play troubles City does, whiffing on its two biggest summer signings is no option at all.

Commit to the 4-5-1 Formation

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Playing two strikers makes little sense, because Aguero really does not need any help.

Pellegrini loves to play two strikers, which would be fine if he always had two healthy and productive strikers to play with.

As it is, though, Pellegrini has Aguero scoring all the goals, and Edin Dzeko and Stevan Jovetic running around trying to look busy.

Smart managers emphasize their side's strengths and hide their weaknesses when they can. Pellegrini's back line is a hot mess, so there is no use in leaning on the defense. Likewise, Aguero is a one-man band up front. Dzeko and Jovetic are basically getting in the way of City's progress these days.

What City have in abundance is midfielders. When they are all healthy, there are too many of them to get them all a reasonable amount of playing time. But if you play five of them at a time, they all get their preferred playing time (or close to it) and the stress on the beleaguered defenders is alleviated.

City should be paying me for this sort of insight.

Figure out Which Striker to Buy in the Transfer Window

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Maybe Aguero can do it alone, but there is no need to force him to on a permanent basis.

The biggest reason for City to fall into the 4-5-1 for awhile is because the side is hurting and because it is easier on tired legs to grind out a 1-0 win than it is to fly up and down the pitch trying to win 4-1.

Eventually, though, City's stars will heal up, the pendulum of form will swing back toward City's favor and the goals will start coming in bunches again. Even the most pessimistic City supporter probably does not believe that City will play the sort of turgid football that they have played thus far for the full season.

When the worm turns, City will need a fourth striker to capitalize on the team's rediscovered confidence and swagger. Because of their Financial Fair Play issues, this will probably mean offloading some players to make the books balance.

City's greatest challenge might ultimately be getting back what they spent on the players they will want to sell to make acquiring a new striker possible. But as their acquisition of Mangala proved, there really is a sucker born every minute. City just need to find some of them in the January transfer window.

Because let's be honest with each other: Aguero is not going to stay this healthy all season. If you don't believe me, do an Internet search for "Aguero injury." At some point, City will need someone to run with Dzeko and/or Jovetic. They have to hope that that someone is on the market this winter.

Bury the Talk of Sacking the Manager

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Pellegrini seems to be on an island lately.

ESPNFC's Craig Burley is just one of the voices asking whether Pellegrini was the right man for the job when City hired him.

"Yeah, he won the league, and I said to you I think he won it by default because Liverpool threw it away...when you're looking at the top coaches around the world, he's not one of them."

Burley then reeled off the half-dozen names that always come up in that conversation: Mourinho, Wenger (before he was past it), Ancelotti, Guardiola, Heynckes and Ferguson (both retired).

First off, let me say that the "he won it by default" comment is a huge joke. If Mourinho's side had won the title on the last day last season, Burley and the other talking heads would refer to it as a testament to Mourinho's genius. So let's derail that train of thought now.

That said, even if Mourinho is not the manager for the future, City absolutely have to emphasize (even if they don't really mean it) that Pellegrini's status at the club is not under threat.

Remember the last time City's manager was left to hang out in the wind? Let's not have that happen again, all right?