HomeFeatured ArticlesManchester City Champions League Group Preview: An Open but Challenging Group

Manchester City Champions League Group Preview: An Open but Challenging Group

The English Premier League must be without any doubt, the league where the managers are under the most pressure. If a manager has been phenomenally successful elsewhere and if he starts managing a big team in the Premier League, he cannot rest on his past laurels. If he is lucky, he might get a season to settle in, but when the next season rolls in results are expected and demanded.

Antonio Conte and Pep Guardiola, both are in this situation this season. If it were not for the internal problems with the club management, Conte is in a better position than his Spanish counterpart at City, as he managed to win the league in his first season. But, for Pep there was no such respite last season. He was brought in so that the club could regain the league title and also the Champions League. Manchester City managed a third position finish last season and were knocked out of Europe at the Last 16 stage by the eventual semi-finalists AS Monaco on away goals. Clearly, an improvement on both fronts would be expected this season.

In the league, Manchester City have started fairly well, although Guardiola was not impressed by the side’s display in Saturday’s victory over Bournemouth. In the Champions League, Manchester City found out who they will play against in this season’s group F, when the draw was conducted in Monaco on Thursday evening.

The Opponents

Manchester City were drawn against Napoli from Serie A, Shakhtar Donetsk from Ukraine and Feyenoord, the Eredivisie champions. Although statistically, the Euro Club Index values vary quite a lot between the 64th ranked Feyenoord (2595 points) and 8th ranked Napoli (3532 points), this group is quite open.  Manchester City are not too far behind Napoli as they are tenth in the Euro Club rankings with 3530 points, while Shakhtar are 19th ranked with 3205 points. May be we should consider Feyenoord a clear underdog but the other three sides can definitely beat each other on their day. Now, let us take a look at how each of these ties are likely to pan out for Pep’s Manchester City.

Napoli

In their last three Champions League runs, Napoli have not gone past the Last 16 stage. However, this side coached by Maurizio Sarri is a bit different. Manchester City director of football Txiki Bergiristain thinks that Napoli play “the best football” in Europe. They gave adequate proof of that last season as they scored 94 goals in Serie A on the way to the third position in the league. 75 of those 94 goals were scored from open play, suggesting a very entertaining style of football.

Napoli led the Serie A or were second in most attack and construction stats including possession, pass accuracy and shots per game. Their style of play is classified by WhoScored as “aggressive”. They also note that Sarri’s side is good at controlling the game in opposition’s half through possession football and short passes. As the goal stats suggest, they create a lot of scoring chances and also take many of them. If you started reading from this paragraph, you might think that I am describing Manchester City. As per Txiki, they are indeed very similar to City.

Manchester City’s home game against Napoli is sandwiched between two home games against Stoke and Burnley in October, but the away game is followed by a visit from Arsenal in early November.  Guardiola’s side could be overwhelmed in Naples but at home they should find the going easier.

Shakhtar Donetsk

Shakhtar are the side without a home due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. They play their home games in Kharkiv but this separation from their hometown of Donetsk is not a mitigating factor for them as they are now accustomed to playing home games far away from Donetsk.

In the last fourteen seasons, they have not finished below the second position in the Ukrainian Premier Liga. In Champions League, after losing to Barcelona in the 2010-11 quarter finals, they have not gone past the last 16, getting knocked out at the Group Stage thrice in last five seasons.

While detailed stats on Shakhtar were not easily available, they are as usual packed with Brazilians, so there should be no shortage of attacking intent and flair in their play. Manchester City host the Ukrainian side just before a trip to Stamford Bridge and their trip to Kharkiv is immediately followed by a Manchester derby. Although Pep has a more talented set of players at his disposal, this fixture list might cause a hiccup or two in this tie.

Feyenoord

The Dutch champions are akin to last season’s Leicester City in Europe. Giovanni van Bronckhorst led them to the title win last season using a squad of little known players. But just like Leicester, Feyenoord’s best players have also been sold or retired. It is totally incongruous to the status of the clubs at present but the Dutch side are the only side of the Group to have actually won the elite European competition – as European Champion Clubs’ Cup in 1969/70. They have also won two UEFA Cups, same as Napoli and Shakhtar put together.

However, their recent history has not seen them play with the European elite.  Their last group stage appearance was in 2002-03. Also, all their forays into the Champions League have ended at the group stage or earlier.

Not only are Feyenoord an underdog side as compared to Manchester City, but City’s fixtures against the Dutch side are also placed more favourably, as the away leg is followed by a trip to Watford and the home leg is followed by a trip to Huddersfield. Both these legs should be easily winnable by Pep’s side.

Conclusion

To ensure progress beyond the last 16, Manchester City needs to target the top of the group and to reach the top, Pep needs to ensure that his team wins all the winnable games – both the games against Feyenoord as well as the home games against Napoli and Shakhtar. As Txiki Bergiristain mentioned, Manchester City are lucky to not get a group like the one that Tottenham have got (with Real Madrid and Dortmund), but they are not as lucky as Liverpool either (Spartak Moscow, Sevilla and Maribor). So, while Pep will definitely target the top of the group, but it would take all his tactics and his side’s talents to ensure they achieve that target.

Prashant Patel
Prashant Patel
Business analysis is my day trade. Analyzing football is my passion.
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