A handful of English pundits have shared their thoughts on the success story of Manchester City this season. A season that has been full of ups and downs, covid-19 contractions, match postponement and fixture congestions yet, Manchester City seem to be unaffected by the events befalling other teams. That being said, this article is concerned with highlighting one major reason why the Pep Guardiola-led side have come this far.

The team structure

The Manchester City side is built differently. The structure of the team is quite different from what is common by many teams. Most teams in the league currently are weaker when certain players are not on the pitch but reverse is the case with City. Anyone in that City team can miss a match and the team still plays fantastically well.

Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling

The game against Chelsea is a perfect example that buttresses the above scenario. For majority of the seasons beginning, English winger Raheem Sterling was absent. Yet, with the absence of Riyad Mahrez, Sterling stepped up and provided quality performances even against a team like Chelsea.

The absence of Ruben Diaz

Anthony absentee in the game against Chelsea was Ruben Dias. Yet, asides the goal threat from Lukaku, it was difficult to figure out that Dias was absent. Indeed no man is above been benched at Manchester City. There is always a perfect replacement.

Conclusion

The fact remains that the building of Manchester City to this point did not happen in a day. As the popular statement goes “Rome was not built in a day” so it took Pep years to build such a sublime team. A lesson is squad rotation for many managers.