Pep Guardiola cannot give Man City fans what they want - and Ruben Dias proves it

Ruben Dias hasn't started every Premier League game for Manchester City this season but he has made more passes than anyone else in the division.

Manu Akanji (6), Mateo Kovacic (8) and Josko Gvardiol (9) also make the top 10 playing for one of the best teams in the league who keep the ball better than anyone else, and it isn't particularly surprising that the top passers are more defensive than attacking. Erling Haaland may only make a few passes in each game but if he scores a hat-trick nobody cares.

It feels a significant chance this season though to see Dias at the top of the standings rather than the injured Rodri. The metronome of the City team has changed from a world-class midfielder to a world-class defender.

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Watching City in the second half against Arsenal with 10 men in their box and Wolves with 11, this understandably felt like an attacking downgrade. Opponents are happier to see Dias on the ball than they were Rodri because the latter is naturally more adept at picking a pass that can unlock a defence.

It felt like City struggled with this task in both of these games, and while credit has to go to the defences they have been frustrating for City fans to watch. This is perhaps the reason for Guardiola disagreeing with the idea put to him after the Wolves game that his team weren't at their best.

"We were patient and making runs and crosses we have a lot of chances because we don’t have the tallest team to attack crosses," he said. "That’s why I have the opinion that it’s an excellent performance."

The natural inclination would be to put a more creative player than Dias in the space where you are going to have the most touches and passes. Guardiola tried that idea infamously with his holding midfielder in the 2021 Champions League final and things did not turn out well.

Nevertheless, it was certainly the feeling in the Arsenal game: if Arsenal are happily giving Dias space, turn Dias into Foden and it's a different ball game. Except it isn't that simple; Guardiola made clear that he needed his last line to be defenders so that they could accurately mop up any threat of a counter and keep the ball in play to recycle further forward, and his answer after Wolves was similar.

"The solution is the way we played today. Basically it’s to stay a lot in the positions you have to be, this is really really important and not become crazy, otherwise they make transitions and after that they punish you — we were close to 0-2. Be patient and be patient, good actions from the wingers, making dribbles, good runs from the people in front. If one player has the ability to dribble in small spaces, shoot and score a goal.

"It’s the only way I think. The other option is to say, “OK, you don’t come? I don’t come. We’ll stay with Edi (Ederson)”, and then who decides to come? That will be so difficult for our spectators. Imagine Ruben has the ball and says, ‘OK I don’t attack’, stay there. What would happen? I don’t know what would happen but it would be a problem.

"Of course we have to do it, knowing that we cannot attack in a naive way, because after that the pace that they have… you saw with Adama in the last game, or all the strikers who have pace. Of course you have to control it but the way I believe, because for many years I faced teams that played in that way, is do what we have done today, it’s the best way."

Guardiola has always been fearful of transitions with this City team, and there is justification for it. Transitions, or counter-attacks, are on the rise through the division and the Blues are having more trouble dealing with them - hence no clean sheet since the opening day.

They are more vulnerable to that threat without Rodri, so if some attacking momentum has to be lost in order to restore the balance then so be it. Losing Rodri was always going to cause the team pain and take some adapting to find a solution.

It may not be perfect, but the attacking issues can't solely be down to who has longest on the ball either. Savinho and Jeremy Doku didn't do enough against Wolves and they are not alone; all is not well among the midfield and attack when Kovacic, John Stones and Gvardiol are the only players other than Erling Haaland to have more than one league goal this season.

If City improve individually, the collective should be better and less emphasis placed on Dias to have to make the difference creatively. But having lost Ballon d'Or level of quality to conduct the team, breaking down deep defences may not get any prettier any time soon.