After three straight defeats, City’s manager says he will use the international break to reassess. Their problems may go beyond tactics
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Enzo Maresca seemed, if not quite baffled by his side’s Saturday defeat to Nottingham Forest, then at least a little put out. After seven straight wins from the start of the season, that’s now three straight defeats, a pattern so unusual that it’s been recorded only once before in top-flight English history, by Sheffield Wednesday in 1904-05. The three defeats were all different, Maresca said, although in all of them City had had more possession and more chances.
In the 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa two weeks ago, City had 63% of the ball and had 15 chances to Villa’s eight. In the 1-0 home defeat to Brighton last weekend, they had 62% possession and 21 chances to seven. At the City Ground, it was 79% possession and 12 chances to 11. So Maresca is right in one way: City could look at basic statistics and say they had been unfortunate – although Forest could equally point to the fact that they went into that game third top of the expected goals table but second-bottom of the actual table.
This is an extract from Soccer Desk, a newsletter from the Guardian US. Subscribe for free here.