Cherki and Foden give Guardiola solution to Man City's nightmare Haaland scenario

ETIHAD STADIUM, MANCHESTER —The last time Erling Haaland was allowed to put his feet up, Manchester City were so utterly flaccid in attack that he was thrown on from the bench.

Haaland could not avert City's limp 2-0 defeat to Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Champions League last month, but he started each of the subsequent five games. The Norwegian superstar scored four times in that period as City won the lot, including a 2-1 triumph at Real Madrid and an assured 3-0 victory over FA Cup final tormentors Crystal Palace.

The hulking No. 9 is not the only member of Pep Guardiola's City squad that might have been hoping for a little R&R heading into Wednesday night's Carabao Cup quarterfinal against Brentford. In that five-game winning run, Guardiola selected a grand total of 12 players in his starting XIs. Those days of 'Pep Roulette' lamented by FPL enthusiasts have become a fleeting memory.

A year on from City's startling winter collapse in 2024/25, there are plenty of reasons for optimism in these parts. The 10-time English champions are nestled two points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal, handily placed for a top-eight spot in the league phase of the Champions League, and in a cup semifinal after this 2-0 win over Keith Andrews' side.

But Guardiola's reluctance to trust his wider squad with minutes over the recent weeks has felt like a red flag. The City boss has previously been a master of shuffling through three or so changes, game by game, keeping everyone fresh and sharp before a "best" XI tackles the final assault from April onwards.

It's unlikely Guardiola views this altered approach as optimal, but the back-ups left much to be desired against Leverkusen. They were better here, in a match where their manager made seven changes as opposed to 10 versus the Bundesliga outfit.

Erling loved it! 😁 https://t.co/Fv1Mb7zKs2 pic.twitter.com/ZnmF4wSx9A

One of the new regulars, Rayan Cherki, lit up the contest with a blistering strike for the opening goal. "I saw many times with Phil [Foden], this type of goal, with Kevin [De Bruyne] before," Guardiola said afterwards, placing his £30 million summer steal in exalted Manchester City company.

Viewed in some quarters as the sort of maverick with whom Guardiola might butt heads, Cherki has quickly become integral. Along with the obvious magic in his boots – his first instinct usually looks to be some sort of backheel flick and he works it out from there – the 22-year-old France playmaker has an innate understanding of how Guardiola likes football to be played; when to raise the tempo and go for the throat, when to put his foot on the ball and recycle possession.

In some respects, that makes him a curious player to drop into a City rebuild that has yielded the most un-Guardiola team of his near decade in Manchester. This is a side built to embrace transitions when necessary, shaped to Haaland's specifications to a greater extent than ever before. The Norway superstar's 22nd and 23rd club goals of the season at Palace showed the value of this approach.

But what about the doomsday scenario where something happens to Haaland? What then for a manager previously lauded for harnessing a collective ethos, who has thrown his weight behind a prolific individual? An injury to another Norwegian in sky blue against Brentford offered up a solution.

Oscar Bobb's dreadful luck when it comes to staying fit struck again, and on came the in-form Phil Foden, whose seven Premier League goals this season are as many as he managed in the entirety of last season. Academy standout Divine Mukasa was shunted out to Bobb's spot on the right wing, with Foden and Cherki given free rein to cajole and create, thriving in tight spaces and establishing dominance in a game where City had creaked and Abdukodir Khusanov was fortunate to escape an early red card.

Baller. pic.twitter.com/ITGYHhg2ht

It was a sort of throwback to pre-Haaland City, that beguiling spell in between Sergio Aguero and the Etihad Stadium's latest striking hero, where Guardiola employed a rotating cast of false nines. City haven't played like that for years now, but Foden and Cherki are such sublime, intuitive footballers that they showed they can do so at the drop of a hat. 

"If Omar [Marmoush, on Africa Cup of Nations duty with Egypt] was here, we would not have played that way," Guardiola said. "But Cherki can do it, Phil can do it, Bernardo [Silva] can do it, Divine can do it, Tijjani [Reijnders] can do it. With these teams with physicality and transitions, you [need to] make a lot of passing and have two proper wingers to do movements; false nines, you need those movements to do it."

Over-reliance on Haaland has been a major City talking point this season, but 14 out of 18 goals in an ongoing six-match winning run are untouched by the hand of Erling. Cherki and Foden showed City can still be a team that picks the lock as often as they bash the door down.