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Premier League: Guardiola’s future arrival highlights City’s current flaws.

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On Tuesday evening at the Stadium of Light, Manchester City fans sounded their appreciation for Manuel Pellegrini. Chanting his name, it was a show of gratitude as the coach begins his farewell tour.

Confirmed earlier this week by the club, Pep Guardiola will replace the Chilean in the summer after a successful spell with Bayern Munich. A move the club hope will elevate their chances of collecting the Champions League, it will likely require an overhaul of the playing squad. To watch City on Tuesday against Sunderland was to see a team that struggled to dominate proceedings. Yaya Toure looked lethargic as he trudged around the field, while Nicolas Otamendi and Martin Demichelis were at times ragged and prone to needlessly diving in.

Elsewhere, Jesus Navas lacks the penetration one might expect from a £15million winger, while second half substitute Fernando has not made the expected impact after arriving from Porto. A relatively cheap signing in relation to City’s spending power, he is one of a number of poor purchases that have made little impact at the club.

Holding a degree in civil engineering, at Villarreal the players adopted the nickname ‘engineer’ for Pellegrini due to his ability to handle a squad and maintain balance - a stark contrast to his predecessor Roberto Mancini. However this trait has rarely come to the fore at City, with Tuesday’s narrow 1-0 win at Sunderland seeing Aleksander Kolraov enter the field as a makeshift left winger.

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A squad that is unbalanced, Guardiola will not accept those who do not fit his brief. At Bayern, he demanded the club sign Barcelona’s Thiago Alcantara ‘or no-one’. While injuries have halted his momentum, few will contest that Thiago was a steal at €25million. To assess the current City squad, is to see a group that may struggle to play in Guardiola’s system.

Demanding positional flexibility, it has been an important part of his success to date. Take for example Phillip Lahm. A player Guardiola describes as ‘super-intelligent’, he has successfully converted the defender into a central midfielder. It is unlikely that any of City’s current full-backs could make the same transition. Consequently the summer will be a demanding few months for City’s hierarchy, with the likes of Txiki Bergiristain and Ferran Soriano under scrutiny.

That is because for all of City’s spending they have at times seemed over-reliant on a select few. Vincent Kompany knits the defence together, while Sergio Aguero - who scored on Tuesday - is by far and away the club’s best forward. When either is missing City look considerably weaker, which has become a regular problem due to the duo’s issues with injury. A surmountable obstacle in the Premier League, it is in the Champions League that it has often cost them most.

Put simply, City have yet to make a dent in the competition. CSKA Moscow’s Pontus Wernbloom said it was ‘obvious’ how to beat City after their 2014 victory at the Etihad Stadium - a criticism that is yet to be aimed at a side managed by Guardiola. As well as improving things on on the field, the aforementioned recruitment issues at Manchester City should also be eradicated with Guardiola’s arrival. Ubiquitous in the club’s at which he works, he extensively scouts signings, watching endless hours of footage.

While not all of those acquisitions have panned out, (most notably Sinan Kurt and Mitchell Weiser) the more significant investments, such as Kingsley Coman and Diego Costa have. City themselves have had less success when shopping abroad. The acquisitions of Otamendi and Eliaquim Mangala represented a sizeable outlay of £70million, with neither looking that convincing in sky blue.

Working with the global scouting network of City Football Group, Guardiola’s reach will grow sizeably during his time at the club. However the level of freedom he will be afforded is unclear. Demanding control, his public spat with Bayern club doctor Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt saw the latter resign despite having been with the club for 38 years. Sure of his opinions and his decisions, Guardiola is a head strong individual.

Yet even the smallest of criticisms are cast alongside major benefits. Working closely with his players, Dani Alves said of their early days at Barcelona: “He interjects all the time to correct and explain exactly what he wants from us.” He has been known to engage in two hour long discussions about the finer details of a specific position and how he wants a player to operate. “Pep doesn’t just give you orders,” Gerard Pique said. “He also explains why.”

Adapting his instruction heavy approach to players like Franck Ribery, (who work better off instinct) his work with Jerome Boateng has been particularly impressive. The German defender was let go by City after a disappointing spell in England. Physically adept he lacked the intelligence to match. Guardiola has worked tirelessly with him, and as 2016 begins he is now a World Cup winner and a highly coveted defender. With Managala falling foul of similar issues, he could arguably enjoy the same benefits from working with Guardiola.

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One departure that seems inevitable is Yaya Toure. The player’s agent has already stated he expects his client to leave. At Barcelona, the Ivorian was dropped by Gurdiola to accommodate the emerging Sergio Busquets. In 2009-10 Toure completed 90 minutes just nine times before being moved on to City for £24million.

In his absence the team will require a conductor. Central to Guardiola’s tactical plan it could arguably prove the most important signing for the club this summer. Defined as a ‘player with a pause’, it is a role Guardiola often found himself playing. “I tried to trick the opposition into thinking I’d pass it wide again, and then boom! I’d split them with an inside pass to the striker,” he said in Marti Perarnau’s 2014 book Pep Confidential.

Acquiring Guardiola reflects a sizeable outlay by City, and one that further emphasises their intent to be a global force. If the team achieves the potential many are predicting, then their play will be the antithesis of that which earned a scrappy win over Sunderland on Tuesday night.

Speaking after the game on Tuesday, Pellegrini refused to talk of the future. “We are living in the present,” he said. “We are all thinking about this season - we will see after that what happens next season for the players and me.”

However for City fans and the club’s hierarchy, it is impossible to take an eye off the summer, if only for the potential it now holds.