A 5-Point Plan for Manuel Pellegrini to Get Manchester City Back on Track

This season has been a case of after the Lord Mayor's show for Manchester City. The brilliance of their league-and-cup double has evaporated, replaced by insipid failure and an inability to play their best football. 

Manuel Pellegrini needs to find ways to refocus and reshape his squad. Something is lacking. It'll be a big summer for him if, of course, he remains in charge. 

City are set to see Alvaro Negredo, Micah Richards, Scott Sinclair, Matija Nastasic and James Milner leave, freeing up plenty of space on their wage bill. Others, too, are likely to be available at the right price. 

And with financial fair play sanctions set to be lifted, expect a summer of change at the Etihad. Here are five things Pellegrini can do to get his side back to their best. 

1. Fill the Negredo-Shaped Hole

Rui Vieira/Associated Press

For the first half of last season, City were fielding the best strike partnership in their recent history. 

Alvaro Negredo, when in form, was the perfect partner for Sergio Aguero. When in tandem, City were almost unplayable. 

Since Negredo's demise and subsequent move away from the club, City have failed to recreate it. Wilfried Bony arrived in January and, as yet, has failed to get a run of games. Pellegrini will desperately be hoping the Ivorian fills the hole Negredo left. 

2. Inject Some Youth and Pace into the Side

Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press

City lack a world-class ball-carrier, a player with pace who likes to run at defenders and make them commit to a challenge, creating space for others. One look at other top clubs across Europe and it becomes clear each one has a player of that ilk. 

Raheem Sterling would solve that problem in an instant. He has the added bonus of being homegrown. The stumbling block there would be his price tag. However, pace and an ability to run with the ball is something City must seek out this summer. 

3. Stop His Side Conceding the First Goal in Games

Jon Super/Associated Press

One striking statistical difference between this season and last is the rate at which City now concede the first goal in games. 

Whereas their title-winning campaign saw them concede the opener in just 18.4 percent of their matches, this season they have allowed the opposition to draw first blood in 36.4 percent of games. 

With the first goal so often vital in determining the result of a game, City need to be better at stopping the opposition from getting them. 

4. Find a New Left-Back

Lionel Cironneau/Associated Press

There are a few areas of weakness in the City squad that need improving, but none more so than at left-back, where City have been exposed at times this season.

Gael Clichy started the campaign in dreadful form but found his rhythm again around mid-November. He has largely performed well, but a feeling persists that City could do with an upgrade. Clichy's status as a homegrown player makes him unlikely to be sacrificed, but Aleksandar Kolarov, 29, will surely be open to offers.

Kolarov has continually underwhelmed at City, and the club could well look for an upgrade this summer.

Monaco's Layvin Kurzawa has been watched, according to Tom Hopkinson in the Mirror, and 18-year-old Man City academy player Angelino looks an excellent prospect and could be promoted to Clichy’s understudy.

It’s an area that needs freshening up.

5. Sign a 'Crack'

Rui Vieira/Associated Press

Pellegrini has kept himself very much out of the limelight since he arrived at City. He largely shuns the media and tends to give dour press conferences, preferring instead to remain low-key. It’s a situation that suits the image-conscious approach of the club’s owners and has proved a nice antidote to the turbulent era under Roberto Mancini.

However, he recently gave a revealing interview to the Guardian’s Sid Lowe outlining his views of City’s season and the future of the club.

The most significant statement to emerge from the interview was his assertion that City need to find themselves a “crack”—a world-class player capable of lifting the mood of the squad and the status of the club.

The last time City bought a player like that was Sergio Aguero in 2011, back in more ambitious times at the Etihad. Aguero’s arrival had the exact impact Pellegrini is referring to, and that provides the club with the perfect justification for signing another this summer just as things have become stagnant among their current players.