Within a few minutes of the final whistle at Parc des Princes, jubilant Paris St-Germain fans headed out into the teeming rain but were stopped in their tracks by a familiar face. Instead of taking the VIP exit, Fernandinho hustled out with supporters and was happy to pose for selfies.

The Brazilian was part of the Manchester City team that dumped PSG out of the Champions League in 2016 and 2021 but all was forgotten now – the French champions had just dismantled Pep Guardiola’s side. How City would love a player like Fernandinho in his prime right now.

Guardiola could pinpoint the area of the game that cost City a result in the French capital and left their hopes of staying among Europe’s elite hanging by a thread. They need a result against Club Brugge on Wednesday which is not a given, considering how they are playing at the moment.

To Guardiola’s trained eyes, it looked like PSG “had one more player in the middle” at all times. With Rodri out injured for most of the season, City have been overrun in central areas without the Spaniard’s control of matches. The Ballon d’Or winner keeps the ball, sets the pace of the game for them.

Without him this season, the statistics are damning. City are not retaining the ball, which means they are running more to win possession back. Kevin De Bruyne (33), Bernardo Silva (30) and Mateo Kovacic (30) were chasing more and passing less.

It is understood that City have been trying to see if there are alternatives within the squad to cover for Rodri’s absence, over heading straight into the market like they did for Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis. But it seemed clear in Paris that a No 6 is what they need.

Douglas Luiz now looks like he may stay at Juventus, according to Italian sources. He has been linked with a return to City, where he was registered between 2017-19 but loaned out to Girona. Atalanta have been determined to keep Brazilian midfielder Éderson at the club as they fight for the Serie A title and advance in the Champions League. He has admirers at City but a mid-season deal is not easy.

The question now is how critical it is for Guardiola to have a midfielder to turn City’s season around and improve their numbers in the most important departments of matches.

Possession

The 4-2 defeat to PSG was just about as far from a usual Guardiola team performance as you could get. City have won their titles by passing teams off the park – but at the Parc des Princes they had one of their worst matches under Guardiola in terms of possession, taking just 36.8 per cent of the ball. They are the numbers that opponents normally register.

In only two Guardiola matches have City had less possession. The worst came in the early days of the Catalan coach’s reign when he faced former club Barcelona and pulled off a 3-1 victory with 34.66 per cent possession, thanks to a stunning second-half comeback led by Ilkay Gundogan. They managed to beat Arsenal in the 2022-23 season in the Treble season with 36.5 per cent, according to Opta statistics.

Passes

Guardiola summed up the PSG defeat by saying “to defend, we have to play and we could not”. City players have been making the right decisions on the ball during Guardiola’s nine years at the club but their passing stats are down at the moment. The difference between them and PSG was stunning, with the French champions completing 573 passes compared to City’s 306. Their accuracy was 87 per cent, with the hosts five per cent better.

Uefa also track “delivery” and “solo runs” into key areas and PSG outscored City in all departments. For instance, they made 15 solo runs into the penalty area, while City made just four.

Running stats

City’s work-rate has never been questioned but they limited the chasing they needed by keeping the ball. With PSG in control of possession, it was City who put in more hard yards in the stunning defeat. They ran some 5km more than PSG. They are also an older team, with PSG fielding five players 24 or under.

Uefa’s official technical report noted how PSG’s three central midfielders, led by João Neves, took control of the game. “We see the constant rotation between them and the impressive way in which they scan and move,” the report read.

“What a performance in all areas of the game – he was offensively and defensively outstanding,” was the verdict of Giovanni van Bronckhorst, the Uefa match observer, on Neves.

City are working harder this season but have made less recoveries, averaging 50.3 recoveries last campaign and 42.7 this term.

Professional fouls

That was an area where Rodri is the master, reminiscent of Gilberto Silva in a previous Premier League era, with the ability to break up play with a foul without picking up too many yellow cards. It was what Fernandinho also did during his time at City and they could have done with committing a few fouls at the right time against PSG.

Bradley Barcola could have been brought down early in the move that saw PSG score their first goal. City’s stats are also down on the number of times they are fouled themselves. It was a feature of players such as Jack Grealish to draw fouls but this season their average per game in all competitions is down from 11.1 to 9.6.