Manchester City drew with Brentford to halt a fresh winning run, amid signs that Pep Guardiola was turning the champions' fortunes around in the Premier League - and Manchester Evening News readers in our comments section say they can see familiar failings that can only be solved by bringing in new faces.

City went ahead by two thanks to Phil Foden, but conceded twice in the last 15 minutes of the game to throw away a promising lead. Yoane Wissa halved the deficit before a Christian Norgaard header in injury time dashed hopes of making it three League wins on the trot.

Guardiola singled out Josko Gvardiol and Stefan Ortega for faults that led to goals, but ended up praising them after the game. He said: "How good he played. He played an incredible game. We talked about one action but it's the same with Ortega - I said how good he played, how good he passed to Erling, how satisfied I am with especially these two players."

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"They put a lot of players there. We were not close because we were tired and after Norgaard arrived," Guardiola said. "And our holding midfielders do not have the skills to defend these type of balls because we have another type of player right now. At the end we could not defend. I'm incredibly satisfied with the performance. Of course we are sad because we were close to winning and could not win but sometimes it happens."

Fans saw recent issues flaring up again, despite Guardiola's positive response. Reader MenTech says: “For every game without Marmoush, his fees increases by £5m. Pay up now please. We used to bring in attackers to kill off games. Now, we're relying on a 34-year-old midfielder to defend our slender lead. I don't really blame our defenders as they're never used to defending for 90 minutes. We used to control games for 90 minutes. We can't do that with midfield of over 30s.”

HaalandGoat writes: “We desperately need two central midfielders to play behind De Bruyne, our current offering is a shambles. Khusanov will improve our defence but we need a fullback, ideally two. Marmoush will add something different to Haaland, and Vitor Reis will be too lightweight at the moment for us but one for next season.”

De Bruyne Blue can see green shoots: “I love the business being done this month. I think we will all look back on these players in two years and say 'what buys!'. But what we’ve needed since Rodri went out was a six that can sit, protect the back line and distribute. As far as I can tell we’re not in on a centre-defensive midfielder this window?

"The problem, until it’s properly addressed, is the midfield behind the attacking four. Until we get a proper six we’ll be entertained, tonight’s match was very exciting, but results will be difficult to come by.”

Fleurs says: “We really need fresh young legs. To bring Gundogan on, slowed it down even more. Pep keeps wanting to close the game down and it’s not working. O'Reilly should have come on. We have sold so much young talent. We are now going to spend more than the income we received for Palmer and the rest. Been a great run, but patience now needed for the rebuild and do include a succession plan. Great youth system. Use it.”

Have your say! What will solve Manchester City's "Rodri problem"? Comment below, and join in on the conversation.