1 shot 0 right! Manchester City s top card came back but became a spectator on the court. If you play like this, you will be in vain.

In the early morning of May 11, a focus battle was staged in the 36th round of the 2024/25 Premier League. The defending champion Manchester City was tied 0-0 by relegated deputy squad leader Southampton, and the four consecutive Premier League wins and five consecutive wins in various competitions came to an abrupt end. In this game, Manchester City's top scorer Haaland returned from injury and played the whole game, but only 1 shot or 0 points, completely becoming a spectator on the court. Whether Guardiola can use Haaland's killing weapon has once again sparked heated discussion.

Before this game, Manchester City won four consecutive Premier League wins and five consecutive wins in various competitions, returning to the Premier League's first place and reaching the FA Cup final. During the days when Haaland was absent, De Bruyne's sudden forward-free formation kicked very well. Now that Haaland has returned from injury, his opponent is the deputy squad leader Southampton. It seems very easy for Manchester City to win a big away game.

In this game, Guardiola hid Marmush, Nico O'Reilly and others who had performed well before, and Doku was still on standby. Foden and McCarthy both started, heading to the midfield with De Bruyne, while Haaland broke through with a single arrow. After the game began, Manchester City had an absolute advantage in possession, while Southampton set up a bus to deal with it calmly. Logically speaking, it is not difficult for Manchester City to knock on the opponent's goal with a super shooter like Haaland, but this is not the case.

The two powerful weapons to break intensive defense in football matches are: one is the unreasonable breakthrough of speed players, and the other is the long shot outside the penalty area. However, Foden and McCarthy, who started this game, had good skills at their feet, but speed and breakthroughs were not strong points. This also makes it difficult for Manchester City to find Haaland by taking a high ball and passing medium on the offensive end, and can only find opportunities through short pass penetration. However, the opponent stockpiled a large amount of troops in the backcourt, making Manchester City's transmission difficult, and Haaland was also submerged in the sea of ​​people and was at a loss.

Over the first half, Manchester City adopted a madly slow ball control tactic, with players frequently falling back their feet but not much chance of scoring. Guardiola seemed to be aware of this problem, and replaced McCarty with Doku at the beginning of the second half. However, two players, Savignho and O'Reilly, who can improve offensive efficiency, did not appear until the 76th minute, and Marmush did not get on the court in the 84th minute.

After these players appeared, Manchester City's offensive threat increased greatly, and Savignho's shot in the penalty area and Marmush's shot were inevitable. In the 90th minute, Marmush's shot hit the crossbar, regrettingly missing the final shot. In the end, Manchester City could only shake hands with their opponents 0-0. In this game, Manchester City's ball possession rate was as high as 72%, creating 26 shots, but only 5 shots were on the right track. Haaland played the game in this game, successfully scored 6 times and made 3 key passes, but only 1 shot missed. In sharp contrast, only Rico Lewis, the four defenders in Manchester City, did not shoot, and the other three shots were more than Haaland. Rubendias shot 3 and 2, Akanji shot 4 and 1, and Guvadiol shot 2 and 0. Kovacic and B-shi also shot three times respectively. De Bruyne and Foden in the frontcourt shot 5 and 2 shots respectively. In other words, except for the goalkeeper, only 2 of Manchester City's starting 11 players have lower shots than Haaland. Should this be called putting the cart before the horse?

From the current perspective, Guardiola has not found a balance between insisting on passing and controlling and using Haaland well. In the past few seasons, Manchester City was able to use the cake feeding tactics of midfielders to let Haaland act as a turret and gain a lot of goals. But as the team's midfielders age, only the accurate pass is left with invalid footwork, Haaland also turns into a trapped beast and is almost invisible in the sea of ​​opponent's defenders.

Of course, Manchester City is not without solutions. Doku and Savigno’s breakthrough, Marmush’s support and Nico O’Reilly’s assist can make Haaland no longer lonely. But their technical characteristics are somewhat inconsistent with Guardiola's passing and control tactics. However, if the next two Premier League and FA Cup finals still play like today, Manchester City will not only not win the Cup championship, but it will probably not be able to get the qualification for the Champions League.