Manchester City: 10 Things Learned from Champions League Group Stages

The Champions League group stage has been a steep learning curve for Manchester City. 

Although the club is flying high in the Barclays Premier League, Group A's "group of death" opposition of Bayern Munich, Napoli and Villarreal has pushed Roberto Mancini's men to their limits. 

Here are 10 things we learned from the group stage of Manchester City's inaugural Champions League campaign.

Coefficients Are Vital

The importance of the UEFA club coefficient rankings should not be underestimated. With a coefficient total of 54.807, Manchester City were seeded third in the CL group stage draw.

A coefficient total less than half of their cross-town rivals, not to mention England's other representatives, in the top seeding group meant City were at a disadvantage from the beginning of the competition due to the club's recent European inactivity.

With improved future performances in the Champions or the Europa leagues, the club will seek to climb the coefficient rankings in order to avoid hazardous groups featuring three teams of the calibre of Bayern Munich, Villarreal and Napoli in the future.

Balotelli's Red Card Hurt 2 European Campaigns

When Mario Balotelli received a red card for violent conduct in last season's Europa League clash with Dynamo Kiev, not one, but two European campaigns were damaged.

Deprived of the enigmatic Italian for the first three group stage games of City's debut in the Champions League campaign, the Blues struggled in front of goal, scoring just three goals and only winning one game.

Balotelli's omission did not seem vital at the start of the season, with Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero in white-hot domestic form and Carlos Tevez ready for action in the background.

The loss of Tevez meant the Blues were down to two available strikers, severely limiting Mancini's hand.

Away PL Scheduling Was a Nightmare

Balancing a title challenge as well as the Champions League campaign would be naturally challenging, but a fixture scheduling nightmare for the Blues made this feat even harder.

Every game in the Champions League was followed by a Premier League away game for City—Napoli at home followed by Fulham away, Bayern Munich away followed by Blackburn away, Villarreal at home followed by Manchester United away, Villarreal away followed by Queens Park Rangers away, Napoli away followed by Liverpool away.

Finally, after Bayern Munich's visit to Etihad Stadium, the Blues will make the trip south to London to play Chelsea next Monday.

Although the Blues have picked up an impressive 11 points from the 15 available in post-CL games, the two draws at Craven Cottage and Anfield represent the only dropped domestic points this season.

Bayern Munich Are Serious Contenders

Although the Bundesliga outfit have suffered two defeats in recent weeks—1-0 at home to champions Borussia Dortmund and 3-2 away to Mainz—Bayern Munich reclaimed the top spot in the division with an emphatic 4-1 home victory against Weder Bremen this weekend.

Like their English rivals, Bayern are leading the way domestically but unlike City, their European form has been impeccable.

With four wins from the five matches so far (the only draw coming at the Stadio San Paolo in Naples, courtesy of a Badstuber own goal), Bayern have coasted through what was arguably the toughest group in this season's Champions League, scoring 11 goals whilst conceding only four.

With the top spot already secured, it would be no surprise to see a shadow squad in action in Wednesday night's tie at Etihad Stadium. Regardless of the final game's result, Bayern have shown form to be considered very serious contenders to Barcelona's crown.

Balancing 4 Competitions Is a New Experience for the Blues

This is virgin territory for Manchester City. With the club competing for honours on four fronts this season, adapting to such a hectic schedule has been a major priority.

Case in point—Liverpool visit Etihad Stadium on 3 January, with Manchester United visiting days later in the FA Cup third round before. The hectic week is rounded off with the visit, again, of Liverpool in the Carling Cup semifinal on 11 January.

The level of competition City face now is what the club have been aiming for, but the balancing act requires time, something the Champions League will not afford them.

Italian Football Is Far from Dead

Despite Italy losing a Champions League place to Germany due to recent poor coefficient totals, Napoli have breathed fresh life into the competition.

With a unique playing style for a top European side, Napoli's counter-attack formation proved extremely effective against the possession-based domination of Manchester City.

Hitting the citizens with pace and guile through the holy trinity of the talismanic Ezequiel Lavezzi, captain Marek Hamsik and leading goal-scorer Edinson Cavani, the Neapolitans took four points from six versus their English opponents.

Squad Rotation Requires Delicacy

Roberto Mancini has assembled a squad capable of competing across four competitions, with international players vying for playing time in all areas of the pitch.

Finding the delicate mix of consistency and squad rotation is difficult, however, with too many changes disrupting the flow of a winning team and too few leading to player burnout and potential injuries.

Mancini has not named the same 11 players for two consecutive games this season, with competition for places reaching a fierce level, assisting the club on their title challenge.

The rotational policy has so far not paid dividends in the Champions League, however. Balance must be found but not at the expense of player fitness or domestic success.

Unavailable Winners

Manchester City boast four Champions League winners in their squad—Yaya Toure, Mario Balotelli, Carlos Tevez and Owen Hargreaves. Only one of these has been available for the entire group stage campaign, however.

Owen Hargreaves was left out of the European 25-man squad due to lack of match fitness, Carlos Tevez seemingly ended his City career after refusing to warm up during City's 2-0 defeat at Allianz Arena, having previously only played 10 minutes versus Napoli.

Mario Balotelli served a three-match suspension.

Plenty of players within the rest of the squad have Champions League experience individually (Edin Dzeko, Gael Clichy, Samir Nasri, Sergio Aguero etc), but as a collective club unit, experience competing at this level is severely limited.

Nothing Beats a European Away Trip

Purely from a fan's perspective, the Champions League has opened up an entire world. From the delights of Munich's Oktoberfest prior to journeying to the impressive Allianz Arena on the underground metro, to experiencing the unique entity known as Naples, there has never been a better time to follow Manchester City on their travels.

Regardless of results, City's debut Champions League campaign has provided a thrilling roller coaster for the fans. It has even brought out old self-deprecating classic terrace chants, which are no longer applicable to the club's domestic campaign.

"We never win at home and we never win away, we lost last week and we lost today. But we don't give a **** 'cause we're all p****d up, MCFC okay!"

Bad Luck for the Yellow Submarine

Villarreal can count themselves unlucky. Not only were they drawn in an extremely hard Champions League group, but their progress in said group was severely hindered by a growing injury list.

Star strikers Nilmar and Giusseppe Rossi suffered long-term injuries and were then joined by key men Christian Zapata, Cani, Marco Ruben, Marcos Senna and Jose Catala.

The club have struggled under the amount of injuries, scoring just two goals and losing all five games so far. Their fans may encourage coach Juan Carlos Garrido to treat the visit of Napoli to El Madrigal seriously, but it would be in the club's best long-term interest to now concentrate on form in La Liga.