Man City need more than Haaland as season sits on knife’s edge

MANCHESTER, England — For 75 minutes on Tuesday night, Manchester City were cruising against Feyenoord and heading to Liverpool on Sunday with a much-needed injection of confidence after a bruising run of five straight defeats. By the time manager Pep Guardiola walked back down the tunnel at full-time, though, he had watched the Dutch side horribly expose the vulnerability that is infecting his team, and a game that should have ended in a 3-0 home win finished in a 3-3 draw.

It wasn’t a sixth consecutive defeat, it just felt like one.

Feyenoord scored three times in the final 15 minutes at the Etihad Stadium to leave City with work to do to finish in the top eight of the Champions League group phase. More immediately, Guardiola will have to go to Anfield this weekend to play the Premier League leaders with a group of players who look chronically low on confidence. It’s now six games without a win and seven goals conceded in the space of four days.

The ending to the game was such a shock that it left Guardiola lost for words.

“It is not necessary to say anything to [the players], they know it perfectly,” Guardiola said. “It is what it is. It’s difficult to swallow now.

For large parts of the first half, City played like a team trying to rediscover themselves. The swagger that has seen them win the last four Premier League titles has drained away during their worst run of form since 2006.

For a while, though, it looked as if Erling Haaland would paper over the cracks. Much of the first-half performance looked awkward and disjointed until the Norwegian striker smashed in a penalty in the 44th minute.

The beauty of having such a prolific goal scorer is that he can cover up any number of problems.

Anis Hadj Moussa scored what looked to be a consolation before substitute Santiago Giménez — returning from injury — bundled in a second with eight minutes to go.

In the wake of the 4-0 defeat to Tottenham on Saturday, Guardiola branded his team “fragile.” And that’s exactly how they looked during a chaotic finale.

Igor Paixão chased a long ball over the top, Ederson came flying out to clear the danger only to be left in a heap on the field. With only Rico Lewis guarding the goal, Paixão crossed for Dávid Hancko to head in and send the Feyenoord fans behind the goal into a bouncing mass of delirium.

“If you’re from Feyenoord it was an unbelievable evening,” coach Brian Priske said. “It was a strange game. It was an unbelievable result. For me, they’re still the best team in the world. You always believe, but we knew it was always going to be a difficult game. We don’t usually celebrate draws but this is a bit special.”

The travelling Feyenoord supporters spent the final few minutes chanting the name of former boss Arne Slot — now in charge of Liverpool — and singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

Guardiola said Saturday that City will be out of the title race before Christmas if they lose at Anfield and allow an 11-point gap to increase. His task now is to try to lift his players to ensure it doesn’t happen.

“We have to [win], we have to,” said Guardiola of Sunday’s match against Liverpool. “That is my job. We didn’t lose today. Everybody knows the situation. I don’t have to add absolutely anything. We are going to train [Wednesday], recover and prepare for the next game. Day off and we have two or three days to prepare and go for it.”

Even at this early stage, it feels as if their season is on a knife edge.