Manchester City have plenty to fix after frustrating 1-0 loss against Brighton

Manchester City have plenty to fix after frustrating 1-0 loss against Brighton Manchester City fell to their second consecutive defeat in the Premier League with their 1-0 defeat to Brighton at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday. Saturday’s match followed nearly the same pattern as City’s 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa at Villa Park the weekend before. A defensive error cost City dearly and they played catch-up from that point onwards. Like the loss to Aston Villa, Enzo Maresca’s side created more than enough chances to at least take a point against Brighton but it wasn’t to be. Looking at Manchester City’s performance against Brighton, there is plenty to fix for Enzo Maresca to get his team firing once again. Once again a defensive error cost Manchester City against Brighton. A familiar theme saw Brighton gifted the lead at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday. Brighton won a free kick on the halfway line in the 10th minute. Lewis Dunk sprayed the ball out wide to the right to Maxim De Cuyper. De Cuyper was given far too much to deliver a quality low cross into the City penalty area. Josko Gvardiol failed to put enough pressure on De Cuyper to prevent his cross coming in. De Cuyper’s cross made its way to the back post where Matheus Nunes made a hash of his clearance. Nunes’ clearance fell to Yasin Ayari, who beat Gianluigi Donnarumma from close range to give Brighton the lead. Defensive errors which have led to goals have consistently cost Manchester City this season. It cost them at Villa Park when Gianluigi Donnarumma let a simple shot squirm underneath him to give Villa a 2-1 lead. Against Ipswich Town, Marc Guehi made two errors to gift Ipswich Town two goals. Fixing these errors rests on the players. They have to solve this issue at the back. It is as simple as that. Speaking after Manchester City’s defeat, Enzo Maresca acknowledged that the defensive errors made by his team must be rectified. He explained: “ In the last two or three games it’s happened many times [defensive lapses] but we need to analyse how to do better and move on. ” “ In this moment, we are second in terms of goals scored in the Premier League so that means we are scoring. “ “ We are conceding silly goals and we can avoid that. Hopefully we can avoid that in the next game. “ Finding the best midfield mix remains an issue for Enzo Maresca. Against Brighton, Enzo Maresca selected the midfield trio that everyone associated with Manchester City wanted to see. Ayyoub Bouaddi, Elliot Anderson and Enzo Fernandez started in midfield. Unfortunately, the trio didn’t influence the match as expected. Ayyoub Bouaddi played a more advanced role in midfield rather than his preferred role as a number six. Elliot Anderson played in his all-action style in midfield and played well. Enzo Fernandez didn’t play as the advanced midfielder as expected. He failed to influence Saturday’s match in a deeper midfield role. For now, the ideal Manchester City midfield mix is yet to be found. Elliot Anderson is a certain starter in Manchester City’s midfield. Who plays him is the mystery. For City to have a proper attacking threat in midfield, Rayan Cherki or Phil Foden have to play in the number ten position. That would leave Ayyoub Bouaddi or Enzo Fernandez to partner Elliot Anderson behind Cherki or Foden. For now, Bouaddi needs to be given an opportunity in his ideal role. The Manchester City midfield would benefit from this security in midfield. That was a major takeaway I’ve had from the past two defeats in the Premier League that Manchester City has suffered. Final thoughts. There are issues for Enzo Maresca to rectify with this Manchester City team. That was to be expected given it is a new era at City. It was foolish to expect Enzo Maresca’s side to maintain their winning run in the Premier League forever. That was never going to be happen. Now, Enzo Maresca has some issues to solve and it will be fascinating to see what the solutions are that he comes up with. Also, Manchester City have squandered a host of chances in their defeats to Aston Villa and Brighton. If City can fix the defensive errors and take their chances, there is little doubt that Enzo Maresca’s side will quickly get back on track. But they do have issues to solve which will aid their cause the sooner they are rectified.