Pep Guardiola's all-conquering Man City look old, stale and fragile - but don't write them off | OneFootball

Rebuilding his ageing side will be Guardiola’s greatest challenge

The name of Kyle Walker’s weekly podcast on BBC Sounds is a nod to his reputation as one of Europe’s quickest defenders: ‘You’ll Never Beat Kyle Walker’.

Unless, that is, you are Adama Traore or Timo Werner, who have both beaten the Manchester City captain with apparent ease in recent weeks.

Traore left Walker for dead in a straight sprint from the halfway line during City’s 3-2 win over Fulham in October (only to fluff his finish), while Werner breezed past him to set up Tottenham’s fourth goal last Saturday, which extended the champions’ remarkable losing streak to five matches.

Walker used to deal with even the top-flight’s fastest forwards but the 34-year-old has lost a crucial yard this season, which appears to have taken him by surprise.

Nightmare: Manchester City’s latest implosion against Feyenoord left Pep Guardiola admitting that his team are ‘fragile’

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This is not to mock or dismiss Walker, who is among the many City players to suffer from injuries this term, but age catches up with the best of us, and you wonder if he is finally coming to the end of a sustained period as the Premier League’s foremost flying full-back.

Walker was one of five thirty-somethings to feature for City against Spurs - along with Ederson, John Stones, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne - compared to two in Ange Postecoglou’s ranks and herein, perhaps, lies one of Pep Guardiola’s biggest problems.

All-conquering City are starting to look old. There are nine players who are 30 plus, and 12 aged 29 or over in Guardiola’s squad, while Rodri will be 29 by the time he next plays.

Only Everton and West Ham have named an older starting XI this season than the side Guardiola put out in the defeat to Bournemouth.

Walker is winding down, De Bruyne, 33, has played 19 out of a possible 49 Premier League games since he was injured in the Champions League final win over Inter Milan in 2023 and Gundogan’s return to the club aged 34 is not working out.

City still have a youthful core, and Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku, Phil Foden and Savinho could form the basis of their front line for years to come, but there will be holes to fill in Guardiola’s squad soon enough.

You wonder, too, if a group that has remained relatively consistent for years has gone a little stale, growing tired of the same voices - even one as charismatic as Guardiola’s - and becoming sated by years of success.

Blowing a 3-0 lead in 15 minutes to draw with Feyenoord on Wednesday night was City’s latest implosion and left Guardiola admitting his team are “fragile”.

All-conquering City are starting to look old... it’s one of Pep Guardiola’s biggest problems

The Catalan has played down the need for changes - insisting after Saturday’s defeat that his squad remains “exceptional” when fully fit - but in the space of a few difficult weeks, the champions have gone from a side unbeaten in 52 home matches to a team apparently nearing the end of a cycle.

‘Apparently’ is the optimum word here, because it would take a braver reporter than this one to write off City this season, even if they fall 11 points behind league leaders Liverpool with another defeat at Anfield on Sunday.

A rebuild is surely coming for incoming sporting director Hugo Viana and Guardiola, however, and after years of minor tweaks in the market, City are primed for major surgery next summer.

Much will depend on the outcome of their trial of the century against the Premier League, who have charged the champions with more than 100 breaches of the rules.

For even the greatest managers, rebuilding a winning team is often much harder than building it up in the first place, and Guardiola could have walked away at the end of the season when his contract expired, leaving the job to someone else.

Instead, in signing a new two-year deal, the 53-year-old appears to have committed himself to the challenge of creating another great side.