Manchester City have won just once in their last 10 games. From the outside looking in, it seems surprising that such a run went on for so long, that the brilliant players and managers failed to find a solution and things quickly returned to normal.

However, the reality is that this could continue for a while, which is a particular concern for the club ahead of Sunday’s Manchester derby.

City are stuck in a vicious cycle with many of their steadiest and most stable players injured and the remaining fit players exhausted. This means that a team already lacking physicality and mobility in midfield due to Rodri’s year-long absence can be substituted at half-time.

Ilkay Gündogan has detailed the problems following the 2-0 defeat to Juventus, which leaves City 22nd in the new Champions League format and needs at least one win from their last two games to secure a narrow play-off. to secure off-place.

“Right now it just feels like every attack we concede is just dangerous,” Gündogan told TNT Sports. “And sometimes I have the feeling that we are a bit careless in the duels. Instead of playing simply, we overcomplicate things and miss the right time to pass the ball, release the ball, and we just lose balls and they score in transition every time. We give them counterattacks and have to move back 50, 60 meters.

“We’re not built for that, we’re built for possession and possession, being strong and even if you can’t do anything in a duel, just not losing. “It’s just not working for us at the moment.”

He was asked about a lack of trust in the team. “It’s a big part of it and of course it’s a mental problem too. One action, we will miss the ball or lose a duel and you can see that we immediately fall, that we lose the rhythm and they are able to break our rhythm with the smallest things. They don’t even have to do much and it’s just having such a big impact on us right now.”

Immediately after Rodri’s injury, City already looked weak on the counter-attack, but at least managed to secure victories against Fulham and Wolves at the start of the season. That could be their level if they had more of their key players available – not at their best, but certainly not weak enough to have won just once in ten games.

Guardiola’s entourage hoped that things would improve after the November international break, with John Stones, Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji, Ruben Dias, Jeremy Doku and Kevin De Bruyne ready to return from injury.

But her attempts to achieve anything close to her best failed again. Stones was eliminated in the first game back and even City’s win over Nottingham Forest last week was immediately canceled out by renewed injuries to Akanji and Ake, the effects of which have been seen in the two games since.

They also didn’t know that Mateo Kovacic would miss Croatia or that Phil Foden would get bronchitis. It’s one thing after another.

Foden was unable to repeat last season’s brilliant form as De Bruyne was sidelined for around ten weeks, robbing the team of their creativity.

There are also some issues that aren’t necessarily fitness-related: City’s wingers aren’t a goal threat. Erling Haaland seemed jaded. If you can’t keep the ball out of the net, it’s better to throw it into the goal at the other end, and they often don’t manage to do that.

These are not new problems, but there is no sign that the biggest causes are improving. Guardiola pointed this out after the 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace on Saturday.

“The solution is ‘Give me back my players’ and we will do it, but it’s not possible at the moment and I don’t think it’s going to happen for a long time,” he said, then elaborated exactly why.

“We let our four centre-backs recover last week, but they went from the massage table to the pitch, and after the pitch they went back to the massage table. Normally after the massage you need speed, training, but under the circumstances we couldn’t do that.

“They come from many years in which we have reached the final stages of all competitions and at the end there comes a moment when the body can no longer take it. When we got to the final stages of the treble season or the domestic quadruple it was because everyone is there or everyone is involved, but today in those positions, with the exception of McAtee, Grealish and Jeremy, the others from the academy, and it will be the same for the next three weeks, a month.”

Guardiola, who has been misunderstood for years because of his constant change of players, has had to rely on Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gündogan in the six games since the international break. De Bruyne, who has just returned from that injury, has played the last three games, while Dias, who has also returned from injury, has started the last four games. This is not how Guardiola likes to lead his team and there is a fear that these players will also fall away, but there are not many reserve options.

Foden and Kovacic were on the bench in Turin but did not come off the bench, meaning they may have to come straight off the massage table against Manchester United on Sunday. They would provide freshness and some momentum, but wouldn’t really solve the problems on the counter-attack, especially with Rico Lewis suspended, meaning Guardiola’s fit defenders – when Akanji is unavailable – Dias, Josko Gvardiol and Kyle Walker (the had problems) are (bad for weeks) and youngster Jamai Simpson-Pusey.

Manchester United are also hardly rocking the world at the moment, but from City’s perspective their problems have been evident for some time and their attempts to sort them out are being significantly hampered by a fitness situation that isn’t improving – which is why the Victory over Forest could never be a catalyst for a revival.

It’s certainly unusual for City to be so vulnerable, and it certainly won’t stay that way until the end of the season, but listening to Guardiola and Gundogan it’s hard to see how things will continue to improve so far.

(Top photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images)