The fact that every potential fix for a Manchester City issue has a cascading effect and could lead to a different dilemma elsewhere on the field is one of the problems Pep Guardiola is now dealing with.

Finding the ideal combination of parts to create a performance to build upon will keep Guardiola up at night if he has a tactical mind as sharp and focused as his.

Of these seven games without a victory, Sunday’s loss to Liverpool at Anfield wasn’t the worst. Although it was actually quite the opposite, City did appear to be a team that had lost its identity. To begin with, they have lost any attacking fluency in their attempt to become more defensive.

On Sunday, they had a perplexing method to scoring. City has steadily changed from a squad that shares goals to one that depends almost entirely on one player as Guardiola has demonstrated his versatility by switching from a false nine to possibly the purest No. 9 in Europe.

Erling Haaland was the only player to score a league goal for City this season, according to a statistic that circulated before kickoff at Anfield. With the Norwegian on the sidelines against Liverpool, no one else appeared to be in the mood to score. However, a defensive strategy was revealed when a system was created with Rico Lewis and Matheus Nunes supporting Haaland.

Now that Guardiola has switched up so many players and changed up roles, it’s difficult to recall where they started. With Kyle Walker finding it difficult to extend the play on the right and Nunes failing to provide any width from the left, the team appears narrow and unbalanced without Josko Gvardiol.

Although there were many technicians in City’s midfield, none of them saw enough of the ball to have an impact. Guardiola put Savinho, Jeremy Doku, Jack Grealish, and Kevin De Bruyne on the bench when he selected a defensive squad, but he eventually unleashed all four of them.

Guardiola thought City had a chance to improve in the second half before their match against Nottingham Forest on Wednesday. There is a case to return to the fundamentals as they search for their first victory since the end of October. In order to support Haaland, City needs more players and goals. This entails using at least one aggressive player in the center and two additional natural wingers.

On the field, City needs a more potent goal threat. Although Phil Foden, Savinho, and Doku haven’t yet reached their peak this season, two of them ought to start in wide areas. Then, if De Bruyne is well enough to start games, he might contribute to the central demand for greater creativity. In his post-match press conference on Sunday, Guardiola offered what may have been the most intriguing answer in a single sentence.

He mentioned a possible remedy in the midfield area while talking about the physical battle against Liverpool: “Jack in the middle I’m thinking he can help us to have that control and vision in the final third.”

Grealish, who has grown accustomed to drifting in from the left, hasn’t had many opportunities to play in an offensive midfield position for City, but when he’s at his best, he can undoubtedly dominate games from that position. When England played Ireland in Dublin in September, he did it for them.

Guardiola himself has indicated that he is thinking about giving Grealish a new role, but it is nearly impossible to predict the squad he will select on Wednesday night. That might be a workable solution.