How City lost the 2019 Premier League Title?

   City are Done and Dusted, Outclassed by everyone, No one can match Liverpool's Play

Okay, so Liverpool have done the unthinkable. They have won the Premier League after 30 years and they were the quickest to do so with 7 games in hand.
Pep Guardiola is a master mind and won back-to-back Premier League and opened the season well and then why the hell they lost the league without producing an exact match.
Let’s begin………..
Manchester City were flying high. In 2017/18 season they had a record-breaking season. They collected 100 points and scored 100 goals, pure domination. They were 19 points above their arch rival Manchester United, who finished as a runner-up. 2018/19 was again a tremendous season for Pep’s squad. They collected 98 points except the runner-ups collected 97 points. But this season, it has been an utter disaster for Pep’s team; they are more than 15 points behind Champions Liverpool and yet 7 games are left.

1. Defensive Problems For Pep

So one of the main reason they slipped is due to their poor defense. City’s defense has become precarious as compared to the previous season, which disturbed the creativity and movement of the team. After the 2018 season, Kompany retired and Aymeric Laporte pulled up an injury on match day 5, which meant City’s prime two center-back which he was using for previous two seasons made it challenging for Pep to carry out urgent adjustments. This was accompanied with Leroy Sane picking up cruciate injury in the Community Shield forced which City to play with solely one proper winger on left. 

With City’s first choice center-back completely dismantled, Nicolas Otamendi came in for Kompany and their first choice defensive midfielder Fernandinho had to replace Injured Laporte in the back. With Rodri Hernandez coming from Atletico Madrid replaced Fernandinho in the position.

2. Sane's Injury

With, Sane’s injury, Raheem Sterling went to left wing and Riyad Mahrez came to right wing.

With Laporte injured, Fernandinho started playing as a ball playing defender instead of his natural position of defensive midfielder. Since Fernandinho is right-footed unlike Laporte, the passing opportunity reduces. When Laporte was there, he could bring ball up and create spaces while Fernandinho will cover the void allowed by Laporte but now with limited passing options, Fernandinho can’t go up much and he is less confident in dribbling while Rodri fails to cover the void left by Ferna which means opposition can easily score. Therefore, Fernandinho stays deep which cuts down the creativity and exploitation of spaces. 

When Rodri coming in for Ferna, the style of playing changed. When there is a deep block from the opposition, Rodri does one touch passing and back pass which makes it difficult for the opposition to mark him, thus he receives more touch and ball possession than Fernandinho but when Fernandinho was there, instead of one touch passing to frustrate your opponent he would break deep and find spaces for the forwards to score but with Rodri coming in for Ferna, it shifted.

3.The Effect of Sane's Injury

In previous season Zinchenko used to play as a left back and would immediately be inverted into a midfield helping Fernandinho with the ball progression but with Mendy replacing him, who is a traditional full-back he prefers to stay wide which reduces ball possession which means now Kevin De Bruyne plays deep to have ball possession unlike the previous season where he played at front and Zinchenko helping Ferna with the ball and KDB used to play front and opponents would get confused but this season he had to play deep to hold City’s possession and enhance creativity in the midfield.

With Sane’s injury and Mahrez moving in, the charismatic of City’s attack has completely turned around. In past two seasons, Sane would play from left wing and Sterling from Right wing, the two midfield maestro David Silva and KDB would play high. Usually, Sane would go deep in the box allowing half spaces for Silva and then Silva would pass to Sane. Either he would score from the sideline or pass it to Sterling for goal. In, Right wing, KDB would exploit the half spaces and drive it to Sterling for scoring. But with Mahrez entering into right wing and Sterling advancing to the left, both Sterling and Mahrez would run near the box and try to shoot, thus populating the half space, which increases the shots taken but reduces the chance of scoring.

4.Current Situation

Now with all the players playing front with Mendy running deep into attack to reinforce the forward, City now involves merely three defs in the back. In past two seasons, Sane and Sterling would exploit alongside KDB and Aguero and Silva and Fernandinho would stay deep to support the defence. But now with Fernandinho playing as a center-back and Mendy going high, only Rodri has the chance to stop the counter-attack but he can easily be by-pass which means Otamendi draws on one-on-one duel with the striker but has failed miserably. With feeble defense, many clubs are capable to manipulate them just like the match against Norwich or Wolves or Liverpool.