Manchester City Fan View: Second string fail to shine against Huddersfield

Manchester City were held to an underwhelming 0-0 draw in their FA Cup fifth round tie at Huddersfield Town on Saturday. Pep Guardiola and his men would have been foolish to ever anticipate anything other than a difficult tie against the Championship high-flyers, but they might reasonably have expected to make more of an impression than this at the John Smith’s Stadium.

With Guardiola rotating his team ahead of the resumption of The Blues Champions League campaign in the coming week, City struggled for cohesion and, though the better chances over the 90 minutes fell their way, they rarely looked like securing a place in the quarter-final of the famous old competition. So it came to pass and, if they are to progress, they’ll have to do it via a replay. So, what was there to take from the match?

Sergio Agüero

The Argentine is the big talking point around City at the moment. Does he have a long-term future under Guardiola? Is he working hard enough? Is he happy? Despite the noises from the manager, the club, the player and his agent that suggest all parties want to remain united beyond the summer, there is an increasingly nagging feeling that things aren’t quite as rosy as you’d hope.

It’s tempting to take Guardiola at his word when he says he loves working with Agüero and that the club can’t achieve their goals without him. In fact, that’s certainly true with the disappointing news that Gabriel Jesus could miss the rest of the season, owing to the injury he picked up against Bournemouth.

But City need Agüero in form; on Saturday, he looked desperately out of it. For large parts, the game passed him by, he found it difficult to make an impact against an aggressive opposition that pressed City high. With little creativity coming from out wide, there are some mitigating factors for the striker’s lack of threat, but he is a player capable of fashioning chances for himself. He did this on a couple of occasions, before producing uncharacteristically tame efforts.

You would be hard pushed to say Agüero’s City career is dead in the water and the injury to Jesus will surely see him granted an extended run in back in the side but, frankly, he is going to have to show a lot more than he has done recently if he is to prove that he can do the job his manager demands.

Squad Depth…

…or rather, the lack of it. There has long been a perception that City are well stocked in terms of quality right throughout the squad, but it’s simply not true. At Huddersfield, several fringe players were given a chance to impress from the start and failed to take it.

Jesus Navas, a long-time scapegoat of the City fanbase, put in a performance his detractors will have thoroughly enjoyed; with the exception of a great ball across the box that none of his teammates gambled on, he offered almost nothing.

Nolito could be described in the same way. The Spaniard has found himself struggling for opportunities recently and this display goes someway to justifying Guardiola’s thinking.

When players can’t step up in key positions at the first opportunity, you can’t lay claim to having a strong-enough squad. Along with another poor day for Aleksander Kolarov, there are individuals giving the boss plenty to think about ahead of the next transfer window.

Garcia and Iheanacho

With Aleix Garcia and Kelechi Iheanacho on the bench, it was a bit disappointing that neither of them made it onto the pitch. Garcia has impressed on each occasion he has been a chance this season; one immediately thinks of the excellent display he put in at Old Trafford in the EFL Cup this season.

With the level of rotation that the manager applied here and with the Blues struggling for creativity, Garcia might well feel a little aggrieved not to have been afforded the opportunity to prove his worth.

For Iheanacho, it was maybe indicative of where he is in Guardiola’s thinking right now. He has failed to make a significant impression on few of the occasions he has been given an opportunity in this campaign. The boss must surely have been tempted to rest Agüero further ahead of Tuesday’s key European tie against AS Monaco. It is telling that he did not opt for the young Nigerian.

Equally telling is that, when looking around for a way to break the deadlock, he did not see the striker as the man to do it.

Time is very much on Iheancho’s side but one must assume he is now third choice behind Agüero and Jesus when the latter returns. In a system that employs just one striker, that must leave the young man wondering just where his future lies.