Steph Houghton believes Enzo Maresca’s constant changes to his defence are hurting Gianluigi Donnarumma, after Manchester City lost a third straight Premier League game at Nottingham Forest.
City won their first seven league matches of the season. Since then it has gone badly wrong, and Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at the City Ground left them six points behind leaders Arsenal going into the international break.
The numbers at the back are the worry. City have conceded 10 goals in their last five games, and the defending has become the first thing opponents look to exploit.
What did Steph Houghton say about Donnarumma?
Speaking on Match of the Day after the defeat, the former City captain pointed straight at the selection at the back. “It doesn’t help that he’s changed the back four quite a lot over the last 10 games, five different back fours,” Houghton said. “When you do that it’s hard to get the connections and get that understanding. You can see that from City’s performance today. Some of the goals were really avoidable.”
She used Abdukodir Khusanov as the example. “It’s not only just changing the back four, but [changing the players] positionally. You look at Khusanov, he’s played right back, he’s played right centre half. What is his best position?”
Then she brought it back to the goalkeeper. “I think ultimately it has an effect on Donnarumma, the keeper. And also for Maresca, it’s about trying to find your best back four… this is for Maresca to solve.”
Houghton added that the goals against are only part of it. “Maresca will be really frustrated. It’s a really big concern for City in terms of conceding too many goals, conceding too many chances, individual errors as well.”
Danny Murphy questions the half-time hook
Danny Murphy, alongside her in the studio, went further and asked whether the threat of being dropped is now weighing on the players. “I feel like the confidence levels of players dropped when you feel like if I have a bad moment I’m going to be taken off at half time, or dropped. You don’t gain a really solid back four or five if you feel like every time you make a mistake you’re going to be left out,” Murphy said.
That landed after a game in which Josko Gvardiol and Marc Guehi were both taken off at the break. Maresca later explained both had knocks, which we covered when Maresca revealed Guehi had asked to come off, but from the outside it looked like another change at the back.
One unchanged back four all season
The record backs Houghton up. Maresca has picked the same four defenders in back-to-back matches only once this season: Gvardiol, Guehi, Ruben Dias and Matheus Nunes started against Porto on 8 September and kept their places for the Manchester United game five days later.
There is a case for the rotation. Several of City’s defenders can play more than one position, and with this many games Maresca wants options. We looked at that plan in detail when we explained why City’s first-choice centre-backs haven’t finished a game together since Ipswich. But after the opening 20 minutes against Nottingham Forest, which you can relive in our Forest 3-1 Man City report, the cost is getting harder to ignore.
Is it time for Maresca to settle on a back four?
I think Houghton is right, and the timing makes it urgent. The break gives Maresca two weeks to decide who his best four are, because what follows is brutal: Fulham at home on 21 November, then Champions League nights against Napoli and Barcelona and a trip to Arsenal.
Donnarumma has made mistakes of his own, and he has to own those. But no goalkeeper looks comfortable when the faces in front of him change every week. Pick four, stick with them through that run, and judge Gigio again then.
