City out of the title race after derby day disaster
A string of defensive errors leave Manchester City nine points back from leaders Chelsea, now the question is whether they can secure a European place?

“The margins are so tight in this league—you can lose one game in a season and not win the title”, said Manchester City coach Gareth Taylor to Sky Sports after his side had lost 4-2 to rivals Manchester United on Sunday night.
The reality for the City boss is that the defeat was his side’s third of the season after losses to Chelsea and Everton before the winter break.
The Manchester City manager had initially challenged his players to “win every single game” if they were to regain a chance of winning the title, but the task has reached improbable standards as the gap between them and Chelsea extends to nine points.
Despite the deep-rooted rivalry between the two clubs and a gradual tension that has intensified with the two sides competing so close together, there was a sense of generosity throughout the error-filled encounter.
In front of a feverish Eithad crowd—partly due to the crisp condition and pre-match light show—it was United who put their stance on early proceedings, implementing a proactive press that did not reflect their winless away record to City in the WSL.
Ella Toone’s opener and subsequent celebrations illustrated the tempo and fight that City simply lacked inside the first 15 minutes. United’s second, seven minutes later, though shaded with controversy as scorer Leah Galton bundled in an effort from what looked liked an offside position, doubled down a lacklustre start.
Usually when City have these slow starts, the unrelenting drive of Lauren Hemp or the presence of Khadija Shaw will help etch back some territorial threat, but with both still out injured, their inexperience in big games can show. The sporadic exclusion of England Euro 2022 winner Chloe Kelly, who was left out due to an ankle injury - despite a report in The Telegraph hours before kick-off, claiming a loan deal to Manchester United was being lined up - further confuses things.
However, it was the absence of Alex Greenwood and the brave call to stick with Khiara Keating over Ayaka Yamashita in goal that would typify United’s third on the night. The casualness in City’s intended build-up play was seized by United for Toone to finish with two touches.
“It’s [build-up play] normally a really strong part of our game, for many, many years, and we’ll continue to be that way. its the way I like to play to play because it allows us to arrive together as a team, but I think we got it wrong on a number of occasions,” Taylor said to Sky Sports after the match.
City’s defensive mishaps have become more of an occurrence in recent weeks, with main protagonist Alanna Kennedy expected to leave after being left out of the match day squad again. The story of Keating and Yamashita's battle for the No.1 spot has ran a topsy-turvy road all season long. Keating, last season’s WSL Golden Glove winner, was displaced from her starting berth at the start of the season by the summer arrival of the Japanese international.
At the time, little qualms were made about the decision, but moments of awkward goalkeeping in games against Liverpool and Aston Villa, handed the initiative back to Keating in recent months, which has added to the back-line inconsistency rather than reassure them.
Keating’s pros, such as her aggressive approach and shot-stopping tend to outweigh her cons in youthfulness and distribution, but they were on full display on a night of harsh lessons for the 20-year-old.
Vivianne Miedema and Rebecca Knaak inspired a five-minute fightback to cut the deficit to just one before half time. But when Miedema kicked off the start of the second half and played it back to her eager keeper, the ball was in the back of the City net just minutes later. Keating bumbling with her a long-range kick and Toone making the most of the opportunity. City not only find themselves trailing in the title race but also chasing for the WSL’s two other Champions League spots.
“When you play like that—the decision-making is wrong and the arrival of time and space—it's frustrating to give away three in that manner, and the fourth was really difficult to take,” said Taylor.
“We’re not exactly stacked with depth at this current time,” added the evidently vexed City manager.
The potential arrivals of Brazilian forward Kerolin and Jule Brand were meant to help chase down Chelsea in the WSL title race, but if anything, they're clear signs of an admission of weakness, with recruitment coming too late to mount a sufficient challenge.
unfortunate that keating will inevitably take on a lot of individual criticism from this game, despite taylor's best efforts to avoid singling her out in his post match comments. there's no denying that big errors were made, but the whole collective seemed to really suffer from a lack of on-pitch leadership and poor decision making in the backline and midfield continuing to play keating into pressure situations while she was clearly struggling.
i've seen little evidence this season to suggest that things would have gone significantly better with yamashita in goal (she's also looked prone to moments of shaky distribution), so with greenwood still out for a while it'll be interesting to see what adjustments city can make for this week's games - especially given the memories of the 22/23 season with villa able to very successfully exploit similar situations of poor playing out from the back!
as one of the more experienced players in the squad, think i'd like to see roord drop back more often during build up to offer another outlet and help move the ball up the pitch so it can actually reach what's still, even without hemp & bunny, a strong attacking force. because without greenwood it's even more inevitable that other teams will sit 1-2 players on hasegawa with the intention on capitalising on high turnovers there.
There is zero evidence to suggest that Keating should be anywhere near first team football for any WSL side.
I would send her down to the Championship, that is about her standard right now. She can't pass, she can't save, she can't do anything that you would expect of a WSL goalkeeper.
She just isn't good enough, so to have her starting games, it must show how unbelievably poor the Japanese goalkeeper must be, if she is behind Keating in the so called pecking order or hierarchical structure of goalkeepers.