Mark Langdon: Manchester City have lost their transfer touch

Pep Guardiola's 900th game of his managerial career looked like it caused him as much pain as any of the others and it wasn't just the cut on his nose that suggested he is struggling to cope after Manchester City's latest flop in the 3-3 draw with Feyenoord on Tuesday.

It was the first time in those 900 games that Guardiola had lost a 3-0 lead, bringing about an unwanted statistic as records continue to tumble, with last week's 4-0 trouncing at the hands of Tottenham bringing with it a stream of unwanted personal lows. It was the first time he had lost a league game at home by four goals, the fourth straight defeat is the longest losing sequence in his career and quite possibly the first time he has looked truly lost in how to fix the problem.

Every crisis is relative, but City head to leaders Liverpool on Sunday eight points behind their Anfield hosts, third favourites in the title betting and Hills reported that the Merseyside trip will be the first time in seven years that the Manchester men will be rated underdogs for a Premier League clash.

City sit 17th in the Champions League mega table and took a walk out to 6-1 in the betting for Europe's main prize. If you ignored the related contingency aspect it would be 34-1 about the Premier League and Champions League double which is a remarkable set of circumstances for a side perennially seen as the gold standard in club football. 

So what has gone wrong? 

Injuries have not helped and Rodri's absence is being felt harder than any other. Opta stats highlight City have conceded the most big chances in the Premier League since the Spanish midfielder was sidelined during the first half of their 2-2 draw with Arsenal which is a damning statistic and when Guardiola referred to Tottenham previously as the "Harry Kane team" maybe he was just hiding the fact City are the Rodri team.

Kyle Walker is slowing down but that is not a surprise given he is 34 and it was always going to be a big ask to rely so heavily on Kevin De Bruyne at 33. De Bruyne can hopefully show his best in the second half of the season once he gets fully fit, but City with hindsight have just made too many mistakes in the transfer market, an area earlier in Guardiola's reign where they were considered as good as anyone around.

Selling Cole Palmer to Chelsea has turned out to be a shocker and, while allowing Julian Alvarez to leave for Atletico Madrid made some business sense, the decision not to replace him was bizarre. Erling Haaland is having to shoulder all of the goalscoring responsibility, leaving little room for a break in a packed schedule, and it's not after-timing to suggest that going into a season with one striker is asking for trouble.

There was a reason they let Ilkay Gundogan go in the first place, so bringing the 33-year-old back seemed desperate, and too many of the other signings have disappointed. 

Matheus Nunes and Kalvin Phillips totally flopped and it's hard to make a case for saying Jack Grealish has been a roaring success given there is clearly a nervousness from Guardiola to start him on a regular basis.

There was a time when City were held up as the standard bearers in the transfer market, allowing Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez to leave at the right time, while bringing in replacement upgrades that did not disrupt the flow of success.

That has left City with a bloodied nose. They need to make sure it's only a scratch but Liverpool could well land the knockout blow at Anfield.