Man City 3-3 Feyenoord: Pep Guardiola’s side ‘fragile’, ‘weak’ and ‘frail’ after draw

Croatian defender Josko Gvardiol cost £77m when he joined City from RB Leipzig in August 2023.

He struggled in the 4-0 home defeat to Tottenham at the weekend and was responsible for Feyenoord’s first and second goals on Tuesday.

Gvardiol horribly missed a back pass that allowed Anis Hadj Moussa to get past Ederson and score Feyenoord’s first goal.

Normally that would have been just a consolation and City would have finished the game, but with eight minutes left Gvardiol had a moment to forget.

He gave the ball away again and Feyenoord pounced. The ball was thrown into the penalty area and Jordan Lotomba fired a shot that hit the post and deflected across the goal, where substitute Santiago Gimenez chested it into the goal.

“It was a strange defensive error from Josko Gvardiol that brought Feyenoord back into the game and they capitulated,” former England winger Andros Townsend told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“We have never seen such defensive weaknesses at Manchester City before. That seems to come up in every single game they’ve played recently.”

“They were at full speed. In the end, all of City’s hard work has been undone and the pressure is now even greater ahead of the Premier League game against Liverpool.”

Former Manchester City player Gael Clichy said Guardiola’s side are missing a “vocal” leader in the team.

“You can’t keep making individual mistakes,” Clichy told Amazon Prime.

“This has happened in the last six games. They lack a vocal leader. A strong leader on defense.”

Guardiola added: “Gvardiol will learn. He was the best player on the pitch, but I would be very mistaken if I singled him out for one particular thing.”

“He’s a fantastic player, a fantastic boy and he needs to be helped more than ever.”