Manchester City's missed opportunity

City suffered a shock 2-1 defeat to Everton which leaves the injury-riddled team six points off Chelsea in the title race.

Manchester City’s Lily Murphy battles with Everton’s Justine Vanhaevermaet. Credit: Manchester City.

“We’re light in bodies, but we’re certainly not light in quality,” said Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor in his pre-match interview with the BBC before City’s game against Everton on Sunday.

Taylor was speaking ahead of what was expected to be a rudimentary victory for City in the WSL. In 16 meetings, Everton had never taken points off City. Even a depleted version of Taylor’s side was expected to be enough.

In the end, a slick counter-attacking and defensively compact performance from Everton managed to pull off one of the biggest shocks of the season so far. First half goals from Lucy Hope and Honoka Hayashi gave Everton a 2-0 lead with Mary Fowler’s late goal for City ending up a consolation in the end.

Like many of the shock defeats City have suffered to struggling teams in the past, they dominated the ball, having 80% of possession. But of their 16 shots only six were on target.

City were missing several key players including Alex Greenwood, who picked up an injury midweek in the Champions League, Lauren Hemp, Bunny Shaw, Vivianne Miedema and Naomi Layzell. Given the attacking players absent, its not surprising City were lacking some creativity and clinical finishing.

City had all of the ball in the first half hour but the progressive-passing qualities of Greenwood at the heart of defence, Shaw’s unwavering fox-in-the-box presence, and Hemp’s directness were hugely missed.

The “quality” that Taylor refereed to pre-match seemed to be lacking. When he looked to his bench, it was 18-year-old Lily Murphy who was called upon first, ahead of Chloe Kelly. Murphy starred in City’s 2-0 win over St Polten but was heading into this game with a lot of work to do. Kelly eventually entered the game in the 63rd minute, followed by Laura Coombs, and both of them struggled to get going.

Jill Roord was one of City’s most experienced players out there but she’s still working her way back to full form after an ACL injury. City noticeably lacked the spark we’ve been so used to seeing when Hemp, Shaw and Kelly were working as a prime attacking trio last season.

On a weekend where Chelsea dropped points after drawing 1-1 with Leicester City, this was a huge opportunity for City to climb back in the title race and put some pressure on the holders. In the end, City head into the international break six points behind Chelsea and with Arsenal and Manchester United breathing down their neck.

Aside from the Chelsea loss and a season-opening draw to Arsenal at the Emirates, Taylor’s side had made a good start to the campaign. The group stage victory over Barcelona had felt like a huge turning point in his tenure. Now, a host of injuries to huge players leaves them feeling too light to compete with some of the WSL’s big hitters.

Some of those absentees are set to return in the new year and City will desperately need them. They can’t afford to drop anymore points if they are going to challenge Chelsea for the title.

“We were a bit flat today—looking like a team that has played a lot of games recently—we didn't seem to have much energy, and we suffered going the other way,” said Taylor to the BBC post-match.

On the missing injured players, Taylor added: “Any team would miss the likes of Viv [Miedema], Alex [Greenwood] and Bunny [Shaw], and I'm sure Shaw would have had a good say in a game like this.”

“We are what we are, we’ll have to get the guys together and see where the bumps and bruises are and see what team we can put out [against Barcelona on Wednesday] and make sure we don't let go of all the good work we've done this season so far”.