Everyone is saying that due to the lack of Haaland in the squad, Man city are struggling. Although that is partially true, I think the main reason is not having Rodri in the team. The lineups are out for the Everton vs Man City match and Rodri is in the squad and Alvarez is covering for Haaland’s absence. Against Crystal palace, Rodri was there and they were able to avoid a loss. Rodri was the player of the tournament in the club world cup and it says a lot about him. This says a lot about him and he is the KEY player in the squad.
All of them are true, losing some of the key players make Man City difficult to perform well. They have no Haaland, De Bruyne, and Doku in the current lineup because of the injury problem. Not sure when these players will be ready to play for Man City. Meanwhile Rodri already played for Man City, but he alone can't make the difference for Man City. He is not the machine goal for Man City, Haaland and De Bruyne who has the biggest roles in scoring goals. As long as these players are unavailable, Man City probably gets difficulty in scoring goals. Well, Alvarez seems not always playing consistently, so it is hard to rely on him.
I also admit it, the impact is too obvious on Manchester City's performance.
Haaland is a striker who can determine victory for Manchester City, while Doku and Kevin De Bruyne are two players who can help make attack patterns more effective. So far Manchester City has had great difficulty penetrating Everton's defense because of the tight defense, but several opportunities should have been maximized but so far they have failed.
On several occasions Alvarez has been a selfish player, and so far he has failed to show his best performance when given the opportunity to be the main center forward when Haaland was injured. Alvarez played well with Haaland, but he failed to perform without Haaland. I may be wrong, but I see it that way.
So far, Everton is leading with 1 goal. But Man City really dominated the match. I think Man City probably plays more offensively in the second half. So, I'm not really sure that Everton will win the match. If their defense is strong enough, I think Everton can try to get a draw in this match. Let's see how Everton can deal with Man City attack.
Everton will maximize defense, while they will try to counterattack. The second half should be better for Manchester City and they should be able to strive a win to close the points gap with Liverpool and Arsenal.