Dion Fanning: For once Manchester City are compelling as Pep wrestles with a riddle

But they have not engaged emotions which tend to be more pronounced when there is an element of jeopardy. Instead Manchester City have been a case study in sportswashing and certain psychological triggers, but their story has not been a gripping one.

In the 1970s, those who worked with Martin Amis at the New Statesman joked that, given the advantages he had of family and genes, the most unlikely title for his memoir would be Martin Amis: My Struggle.

City have tried to imagine that obstacles have been placed in their way and they — or their acolytes — can fume at what they believe is an establishment plot to protect the old order. But it has not been a struggle.

If they are interesting, it is mainly to those engaged in the high performance world, where they can talk about the elite lessons to be learned from Pep’s management and other bromides for their manifestos.

Emotion is not something associated with Manchester City. Few have looked at the club and thought it provides a study into the human condition, unless they are interested in how people behave in groups online.

Pep Guardiola bears some responsibility for this as well. His genius has been allowed to operate in an ideal environment for a manager whose pursuit of absolutes has rarely needed to be tempered by the messy realities of ordinary life.

At City, Guardiola has rarely needed to muddle on. Despite his intensity, players have rarely wanted to leave which must be an endorsement of something beyond just City’s success.

He operates in a world where players can be signed and if they fail, there are no consequences. Jack Grealish was signed for €120 million as a vibes man. Nearly €100 million was spent on Kalvin Phillips and Matheus Nunes, while Joško Gvardiol was also bought for €100 million.

For most of his time, their success or failure was irrelevant. City had the luxury of not being dependent on anyone but Guardiola, who was expected to be able to find a solution to any problem.

As he did, he — and those who were influenced by him — shaped modern football into the deathless form it has taken today. “There is only one ball and it belongs to us,” Guardiola said and he has pursued this ideology to its extreme.

This season has been different. There have been more significant results than their 3-3 draw at home to Feyenoord on Tuesday night during their bad run, but in terms of what it told us about Guardiola, there hasn’t been any so striking.

His despair when Feyenoord brought the game back to 3-1 was followed by sarcastic applause for his own team when the game went to 3-2 and then the misery of the equaliser. The narrative drive that seemed to be absent at City for so long then manifested itself when Guardiola had to issue a clarification saying he hadn’t intended “to make light” of self-harm while answering a question about the scratches on his face.

In the latest installment of Marti Perarnau’s journey inside Pep’s mind, he quotes Guardiola as asking, “How do you stay on good terms with a player who hasn’t had a game for a month?” Pep doesn’t know the answer but says he would pay “a million quid” to anyone who can provide him with one.

The stakes are higher at the moment as Guardiola contemplates the worst run of his managerial career.

City last won a game in the final days of October, a 1-0 victory over Southampton which put them back on top of the Premier League. They play at Anfield on Sunday eight points off the top of the table and with the questions refusing to go away.

This is not a City collapse which appears to be salvageable as so many have been. It is not just the absence of Rodri for the season that makes recovery look unlikely. Arne Slot, who venerates Guardiola, has warned about the chances of City’s manager finding a solution for those Liverpool supporters beginning to get complacent.

In the 2018/19 season, Liverpool led the Premier League by seven points when the teams met in January. City took 48 points from a possible 51 as they overtook Liverpool at the top, winning the title by one point and finishing with 98 points.

Arguably it was the highpoint of Guardiola’s time at the club, more significant than the treble season in 2023 by which stage dominance had become expected.

“Pep tells you what’s going to happen and then it happens,” Messi once said and Guardiola’s obsession with figuring out how to bring down an opponent has often led to his own side’s downfall.

Now Guardiola has another obsession, not identifying the weaknesses of a rival, but getting to the bottom of his own side’s frailties and what has led to the past month of decline.

As one defeat has led to another, the expectation that City would recover has disappeared. Now it seems like a spiral which creates a downward momentum. Victory at Anfield might change that. Guardiola may find Arne Slot easier to figure out than Klopp. Slot is closer in style to Guardiola but he is demonstrating a commitment to some unpredictability that ensures Liverpool still have a chaotic edge which often served Klopp’s sides well when playing City.

But it is the idea that Guardiola must solve the riddle of his own side that has created the intrigue. Does he know what is going to happen next for Manchester City?

Some people online (words that carry as much authority as saying some people in the toddlers’ room at a creche) have suggested that the players must have heard something about the Premier League case against City and this has led to the slump.

This seems like a form of wishful thinking, like those who predicted a Kamala Harris victory when they saw women voting early in America, only for it to turn out that many of them were voting early for Donald Trump.

But the charges have frozen City at a moment in time. A squad that held together no matter what club tried to tempt them now looks old and in need of refreshment. But who will join City while the outcome of the hearing into the 115 charges is still a mystery?

On the sideline and always in their head is a manager who knows no other way but to demand more. Guardiola has extended his contract but perhaps even that has had an effect contrary to conventional wisdom. Maybe the players were looking forward to the rest and now realise there will be none?

Instead they must figure it out together. From the outside, this story is compelling in a way the success of City never was. Suddenly there is jeopardy as a genius wrestles with his own shortcomings.

For the first time, City have found an element that makes them compelling viewing. We have watched Pep direct perfection but now we observe something else, something more gripping: a story where nobody knows what will happen next.