Manchester City, en route to its 2017-18 Premier League title, set new high-water marks of records, starting with goals, points, wins, as well as the goal difference. Their players last season were in the best runs ever.
Every player who started multiple league matches is back for a run at the Prem’s first repeat since last decade. There are challengers. There are potential pitfalls. Most of them would seem to be in midfield.
Chief among them is Fernandinho – or the defensive midfield spot, if you prefer to consider it that way. The problem is that the two are one and the same.
City has two Champions League-caliber players at every single outfield position except holding mid. It has two experienced center backs and two 24-year-old ones. Its backup right back came from Real Madrid. When Benjamin Mendy tore his ACL last season, Fabian Delph magically morphed into the best left back in the league.
Up top, Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus are both outstanding. Out wide, Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling, Bernardo Silva and now Riyad Mahrez are battling for two spots. In the middle, Ilkay Gundogan somehow isn’t a first-choice starter.
But Gundogan is not a defensive midfielder. (Germany’s vulnerability at the World Cup was evidence.) Pep wanted Jorginho as a second option, but didn’t get him.
If there’s no Jorginho alternative, the “what if Fernandinho gets hurt” scenario still looms at the Etihad. It loomed last year as well. Fortunately for Guardiola, it never materialized. But that doesn’t mean it has evaporated. Just the opposite. With City’s pivot now 33 years old, decline joins injury on the list of concerns.
Because without Fernandinho, City might be vulnerable. His importance is his multidimensionality – his ability to cover ground, to press or hold, to win the ball, but also to pass and progress it. Gundogan can do the progression and the pressing. But he’s not the counterattack-disruptor and back-line shield that Fernandinho is.
Of course, there are “what if” worries at every club, and more at any of the other 19 than at City. But the point is that there is one. That another title cruise isn’t a forgone conclusion.
Aside from Fernandinho, there are a few other candidates for regression that could hinder City’s excellence.One might be David Silva. The Spaniard was fantastic last season, both as a playmaker and as a counterpresser. But he’ll turn 33 in January. He looked old at the World Cup, and was somewhat emblematic of Spain’s stagnancy. Does he have another full season of Guardiola-ball in him? If not, can Gundogan – who himself has struggled with injuries in the past – pick up the slack?
Something else to consider here, however, that might mitigate concern: The Mahrez signing is a puzzling one. On the surface, it didn’t address a need. But there’s a chance it signals Guardiola’s intent to try Bernardo Silva more often centrally. The 23-year-old played there in the Community Shield, and could make a positional shift similar to the ones David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne made earlier in their respective careers.
The one other position of possible bother could be center back. There’s depth. But there’s no one sure thing. Vincent Kompany is 32, and hasn’t played more than 25 games in a season since 2014-15. Nicolas Otamendi had the best year of his career as a 29- and 30-year-old, but surely can’t replicate it. John Stones is talented but still somewhat mistake-prone, and Aymeric Laporte is unproven.