Pep Guardiola has won every trophy possible at Manchester City, except the Champions League. In the eyes of Daniel Harris, the reason is obvious.
With City being without Aymeric Laporte, Guardiola started John Stones and Fernandinho at the back against Southampton on Saturday.
According to football writer Daniel Harris, they still do not have the players who can turn a game around.
"You got players that the manager can rely on and then you have players for when things don't go well. You can rely on them to sort things out on the pitch.
"Guardiola hasn't always had that, he had it a little bit at Barcelona with Puyol and Busquets.
"What he has at City, though, is a team of choir boys and when things don't go to plan, sometimes you get a collapse," Harris stated.
City have had record point tallies in recent years in the Premier League, but cup competitions have offered a different challenge.
Quality opposition
"In the European cup, there is less margin for error and you are playing opposition who are good.
"If you can't rely on your defenders to defend it might go wrong for you.
"City, in my opinion, have been the best team in Europe for the last two season and to not win the European Cup being the best team is unusual," the sportswriter said.
Really, it comes down to the quality of players that Manchester City have in attack and defence. In this regard, Harris feels the Premier League champions are a very front-loaded side.
"City haven't even got to a final yet and the reason why is that you can't rely on Nicolas Otamendi and Kyle Walker to defend well enough over two legs against quality opposition.
"Before [Heung-min] Son scored against City in the first leg of the Champions League tie last season, he had seven consecutive touches in the opposition box.
"No serious defence is going to allow that to happen ever," Harris said.
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