1 day ago
4
With their Women's Champions League qualification hopes hanging by a thread, an interim manager in charge and no silverware - what has gone wrong for Manchester City this season?
It is not the way they pictured things after pushing Chelsea all the way in a pulsating Women's Super League title race last year, coming second only on goal difference.
But when the full-time whistle went at the Joie Stadium on Sunday, ending City's last chance of winning a trophy this season, they had to stand and watch as rivals Manchester United celebrated reaching a third successive FA Cup final with their 2-0 win.
An injury crisis, managerial upheaval and disappointing performances in the biggest moments have all contributed to what has been a season to forget.
Any team without Vivianne Miedema, Khadija Shaw, Lauren Hemp and Alex Greenwood would drop their level.
City's extensive injury list, which includes those key players, has severely impacted their campaign and thrust their lack of squad depth into question.
Jill Roord, Aoba Fujino, Rebecca Knaak, Laura Coombs, Naomi Layzell and keeper Ayaka Yamashita have also missed a significant number of games this season as City currently sit fourth in the WSL, seven points adrift of Manchester United in the final Champions League spot with just four games left.
They had only four outfield players on the bench in the second leg of their Women's Champions League quarter-final defeat by Chelsea, where the Blues overturned a 2-0 first-leg deficit, and have ended the season with academy graduates Gracie Prior and Lily Murphy starting almost every game.
Interim manager Nick Cushing admitted the injury crisis "100% needs to be examined" in the summer - but it will not help his side now.
"With so many injuries, they can't be all bad luck and they can't all be down to bad practise," he said.
"We have to look at everything. We have to look at why we're sitting fourth in the league, why we've not won a trophy and why we've not got our best players [through injury].
"The review process will be covering everything. I think we should be competing in every competition right until the end."
While City's misfortune is clear, they also failed to act, unlike their rivals.
When Chelsea superstar Sam Kerr suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury last year, they broke the then-British record to bring in Colombian forward Mayra Ramirez.
The WSL leaders then splashed the cash in a world-record deal for defender Naomi Girma in January after losing Kadeisha Buchanan, also to an ACL injury.
Meanwhile, despite a growing injury list, City only signed four players in January, one of which was 20-year-old midfielder Aemu Oyama and allowed England international Chloe Kelly to join Arsenal on loan.
"Some of those [injured] players would walk into any team in the WSL," said former City and England captain Steph Houghton on BBC Two.
"If you take away Shaw, Miedema and Greenwood, that is a spine of experienced players and also good quality players.
"You've got a 20-year-old in Gracie Prior that has come through the academy and has played a lot of games recently. Should she be in the team?
"This is not down to individual performances but ultimately we are trying to build a squad to go and win trophies.
"We are missing some key players. That has proved the difference. Without a doubt the strength in depth isn't there and that is something we need to address."
It has been a tough few months for City and underpinning it all has been a managerial change.
Having already fallen away in the WSL title race, the dramatic circumstances surrounding forward Kelly's exit in January raised eyebrows.
That led to divisions within the fanbase over former manager Gareth Taylor - but it was City's underwhelming performances that ultimately proved to be his downfall.
The decision to sack Taylor was a bold one as it came just days before a crucial two-week period in which City would face Chelsea four times in three competitions.
"Unfortunately we have just not had the rub of the green this season," Houghton added. "The managerial change adds another factor to the performances we have seen over the past few months.
"Ultimately, this is a big learning curve and it's how we get better as a club going forward."
Interim manager Cushing was brought back to the club to try to instil some stability and there were positive signs, but ultimately he did not have enough time to turn things around.
At the end of an intense four-game battle with Sonia Bompastor's side, City had lost the Women's League Cup final, dropped further points in the WSL and were knocked out of Europe despite taking a two-goal first-leg advantage.
It was a damaging period which left very little to play for and City's wounds were cut deeper when bitter rivals United punished them in the FA Cup.
Asked if the semi-final defeat by United had effectively ended City's season, interim manager Cushing said: "In the sense of trophies, it is over. We can't win a trophy.
"Mathematically we can still get third place [in the WSL]. I said after the game, 'we have to win out now'. We have to win every game.
"If we do that and Manchester United slip up in a difficult run of games, then we have a chance [of qualifying for Europe].
"We have to play better and win at Old Trafford [in the WSL on 4 May]. We have to embrace the pressure and responsibility of that and fight through it."
But what is most disappointing, is that City haven't competed with their rivals in the big games this season in the way many had expected.
Their sole victory in those matches against Chelsea ultimately proved to be insignificant as it was in the first leg of their Champions League defeat.
They were poor against Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-final, having already been beaten 4-2 by their rivals in the WSL at Etihad Stadium in January.
And at the Joie Stadium in February, with a top-three WSL spot up for grabs, City conceded twice within eight minutes in a 4-3 loss to Arsenal.
They have nine points fewer in the league than they had at this stage last season, having scored nine goals less and conceding 11 more.
"No matter how it looks, you should compete. I would take any 11 players in the world and think we can win in a certain way," said Cushing after Sunday's loss.
"That might be our problem, that we don't have the toughness and desire to attack the game, however it looks.
"There is a lot of conversation nowadays about the beautiful side of the game - tactics and systems. But you have to win tackles, win duels and compete.
"We have to go away and figure that out so whoever we play and however we play, we can compete at the level our football club expects."
