MANCHESTER. — It says something when a £220 million summer spending spree — more than half of which has been invested on new defenders — results in a team playing their first home game of the season with a left winger asked to play as a wing-back. But that is the reality of Manchester City under Pep Guardiola at the start of the 2017-18 English Premiership soccer campaign.

In total, Guardiola has spent just short of £400m on new players since taking charge as manager in June 2016, but the tactical confusion continues to reign at City.

With recent arrival Danilo named on the substitutes’ bench for the visit of Everton on Monday night, Leroy Sane was given the task of patrolling the left flank ahead of the former Real Madrid defender; and with the visitors scoring from a move instigated down Sane’s area of the pitch, it was clear that Guardiola’s gamble was a mistaken one.

There are times watching Guardiola’s City when it seems that the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach attempts to be too clever for the good of his team and himself. Nobody ever seems to know what they are doing in this City team, and that is perhaps a contributory factor in the problems that they experienced against Everton, when only a second-half equaliser by Raheem Sterling secured a point in a 1-1 draw.

City dominated possession and created 19 efforts on target (as opposed to seven by Everton), but just as they did on so many occasions last season, they either overplayed or overthought their attacking forays. The manager too often lacks clear, concise thinking, and that fault has transferred itself to the players, who could probably do with everything being just a little less complicated.

Guardiola, and his two predecessors Manuel Pellegrini and Roberto Mancini, have assembled a team of devastating attacking talent at the Etihad, but there is still a lack of balance that Guardiola is still no closer to addressing. But he at least acknowledged after this game that the fault lines of last season remain in need of attention. — ESPN.

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