Manchester City vs Real Madrid. A sign of things to come for City?

Manchester City have just been dominated by Real Madrid in a pre-season friendly. They lost 4-1 and their only goal came from a Yaya Toure penalty from Sergio Ramos handling the ball outside the penalty area. Through out the game City were completely outclassed.

A few reasons for this was that Real had a full strength squad out and while City had a strong team, their two central defenders were 16 year old Cameron Humphreys and 20 year old Jason Denayer. So They would have been up against it from the get go. Delph came off injured after 18 minutes and his first involvement in the game was to kick Modric who stepped by him with ease. A definite yellow card in a competitive game.  And, of course, they were missing Aguero who seems increasingly important to them.

So with all this being said it seems fair that Madrid would win but you would like to think that City,  with their millions, don't want to be pushed around by one of the big boys. They want to be one of the big boys and right now they look quite far away from it.

So far Sterling has looked okay and has potential although, most agree, he is unlikely to become a total world beater, which in turn makes his price tag a tad outrageous. Delph is the same, a solid player but will he cut it right at the very top? I don't think so. There are few levels of football standards. There are the lower league, they can become muddled sometimes, then there is the Premier league, then there is the top 5/6 and then there is the very best, the world class. Manchester City aren't filling their squad with world class players and so yes, this thrashing could well be a sign of things to come for City.

I'm not a fan of Pellegrini, personally I think he has got though his time at City by inheriting a strong squad of players. And there are some strong players, who would get into the Madrid squad from City? Aguero would, Silva would definitely push for it. Toure playing well would be an option, Kompany on his day could, Zabaleta could and Hart arguably Could. That is a lot of top players. However, all these players won the league the first time around, that's four years ago. City have failed to add anyone of a higher standard since then and don't look like they will any time soon.

City are too reliant on these players, don't get me wrong, they can be great but Kompany and Toure's form last season wasn't their best and there is no reason City shouldn't expect the same, in fact as the players age, all of their form might dip.

City fans should be worried, this wasn't just a loss to Real it was a pasting. A top team should never take a pasting, they should at least challenge every team. Fair enough they have bought Sterling but they need some young top players to come and carry the torch at City or they are in danger of burning out.