Pep Guardiola has revealed why he has recently dropped Rayan Cherki from his starting lineup and it is to do with Manchester City’s stability.
Manchester City failed to record a victory for the third time in their four most recent matches on Saturday night.
West Ham were the latest team to frustrate the Sky Blues, giving Arsenal an even stronger lead at the top of the Premier League table.
Once again, Rayan Cherki did not start the game, but he did come on when there was still half an hour left to play.
This is now the third successive match across all competitions that the Frenchman has not started, prompting Pep Guardiola to address the situation.
Pep Guardiola explains his decision to drop Rayan Cherki from Man City’s starting lineups
Cherki has been recognised by Guardiola for his abilities, including how much of an impact he can have when is brought into a game.
However, the Man City boss has also claimed his team are ‘incredibly unbalanced’ with Cherki and Jeremy Doku both playing, while outlining concerns about the 22 year old’s lack of pace.
As stated by City Report, Guardiola said: “We learned at the beginning playing with Erling [Haaland], Jeremy [Doku], with Cherki that we are incredibly unbalanced. We didn’t have the stability that the teams in the Premier League have to have.
“That’s why I tried to handle for that. That’s why it’s a team that’s growing; I think from the beginning, we’ve grown a lot. But it’s still not finished business.
“I will not be the one to say that I don’t love to play with Rayan [Cherki]. Especially when he comes from the bench, always the impact is unbelievable,” he continued.
“But sometimes he does not have the speed; the team was stable when Antoine Semenyo and Nico O’Reilly play in the winger positions and then come inside, arrive to the box – they were really, really good.”
Guardiola added: I’m still finding the best way to have stability consistently as a team.”
Man City are still unbalanced without Cherki
Perhaps Man City were too focused on getting forward against Nottingham Forest, but Cherki deserves praise for getting an assist. Nevertheless, he has not started a game since.
The Citizens may have done okay without him in the FA Cup fifth round, but their two most recent matches have been disastrous.
Man City created very little against Real Madrid and had no stability in defence anyway. The match against West Ham was also a failure, as those up front failed to convert their chances, while again, there was a lack of imagination in the first half.
Perhaps Guardiola should attempt to slot in Cherki, even if he is not playing with both Doku and Haaland, as clearly his current tactics are not working either.
In fairness, Guardiola did accept that he made a mistake not starting Cheki against West Ham.
He said: For that role, absolutely. There is no-one better than him.
“Bad selection, now you can criticise me incredibly, for the selection, now I deserve it.”
Maybe this is an indicator that Cherki will be involved more going forwards, so it will be interesting to see if he starts against Real Madrid.
