What's on Pep Guardiola's to-do list after Manchester City slip out of Europe?

Spanish coach with plenty to ponder after Etihad club's surrender in Madrid

Pep Guardiola will have plenty to think about when he turns his attention to City (Getty)

Manchester City’s Champions League semi-final elimination against Real Madrid exposed the flaws which incoming manager Pep Guardiola must eradicate if the club are go further in the competition next season. So what's clogging up Guardiola’s in-tray after the 1-0 defeat in the Bernabeu?

1. Make the club believe

One notable factor in City’s two-legged semi-final defeat against Real Madrid was the lack of conviction displayed by Manuel Pellegrini and his players. Having defeated Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals to reach the last four, City should have taken confidence and belief from claiming the scalp of a major European club – albeit one below the level of Real, Bayern Munich and Barcelona – and faced Madrid with the readiness to look Zinedine Zidane’s team in the eye.

But City performed like the newcomers on the big stage that they are. There was no sense of them using their underdog status to worry Real and, with Pellegrini adopting safety-first tactics, it was all too deferential. Yet as a club, from the supporters through to the players, City do not stride the Champions League stage like the heavyweight that they have become. There is no swagger and reaching the semi-finals seemed to be enough.

Guardiola, having won two Champions Leagues with Barcelona, will raise the bar of expectancy and demand that everyone at City views the competition as he does. He must make the players believe, rather than hope, and ensure that a semi-final is regarded as a stopping off point to the final, rather than an opportunity for the players to fly out their wives and children on the team flight.

If the WAGs and kids must join the party, save it for the final and make sure that the focus stays firmly on the business of winning silverware.

2. Vincent Kompany - Stay or go?

There is nothing that Guardiola will want more than a fully-fit Vincent Kompany leading his team from the heart of City’s back four, but with the Belgian lasting just six minutes of the second-leg in the Bernabeu before succumbing to yet another injury, how can he be relied upon to stay fit next season and beyond?

As he trudged off the pitch, it emerged that the 30-year-old had just suffered the 33rd injury of his City career since arriving from Hamburg in August 2008. Some of those injuries have been mild tweaks, little more than one-game absences, but Kompany has increasingly suffered lengthy lay-offs in recent seasons as the muscle problems have begun to mount.

At his best, Kompany remains of the world’s leading defenders, but he is now approaching the stage of his career which ultimately ended Rio Ferdinand’s top-level career at Manchester United. Injury after injury took away Ferdinand’s pace and Sir Alex Ferguson’s ability to trust him to be available for the biggest games.

Kompany has now limped out of two Champions League knock-out ties in the early stages of the first-half this year – he also succumbed to injury in the second-leg of the last 16 tie against Dynamo Kiev – and Guardiola will be alarmed by his frailty.

It would be a big call, but the new City manager may have to decide to dispense with Kompany and look to the future because a defence built around the Belgian is one with its foundations rooted in sand.

3. Re-energise the squad

The likes of Kompany, David Silva and Yaya Toure have earned their status as blue-chip City legends with their achievements on the pitch during the club’s rise to prominence under Abu Dhabi ownership, but do they have the energy and stomach to be part of the new era?

Similar questions could be asked of Aleksandar Kolarov, Pablo Zabaleta and Jesus Navas, while Wilfried Bony has drifted so far off the radar that the £25m signing from Swansea just 18 months ago surely can have no future under Guardiola.

Toure’s performance in the Bernabeu was in keeping with his contribution throughout this season in that he failed to make a difference and looked disinterested until being taken off by Manuel Pellegrini. Such is Guardiola’s demand for high-intensity football, Toure is surely already a condemned man, but Silva may also find life difficult under the Catalan.

Now 30, and with persistent problems with his ankle, Silva may find life under Guardiola too demanding, despite his undoubted class. Like Kompany, he is another whose fitness will concern the new manager.

This is a squad whch has served City so well over the years, but it is need of new blood from back to front. Guardiola needs to add legs and flair in midfield — a Toni Kroos would transform the team – and inject similar energy at the back, but most of all, hunger and desire need to be restored to the squad.

4. Make Sergio Aguero feared in Europe

Sergio Aguero is Manchester City’s all-time leading goalscorer in Europe, but the Argentine is increasingly a peripheral figure in the biggest games.

With the exception of a group stage hat-trick against Bayern Munich last season, Aguero has fallen short when it matters most against Europe’s elite and after another blank against Real Madrid, he has now remarkably gone five Champions League games without a shot on target. But worryingly, against Real Aguero only mustered 52 touches of the ball in 90 minutes and none of them were in the penalty area.

Service to Aguero has been poor and the forward has at times become so isolated that he goes in search of the ball, but that takes him away from the area of the pitch where he can do most damage. There are no question marks over the 27-year-old’s finishing ability, which he has proven year after year in the Premier League, but City are not getting the best from him in the Champions League.

Guardiola must devise a strategy to ensure that Aguero is given the service he requires, otherwise City will possess a fearsome weapon, yet leave it largely impotent.

5. Take the young talent to another level

City looked ahead to the future last summer by investing over £100m in Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling. Twelve months earlier, the club made a similar long-term acquisition by lavishing £42m on Eliaquim Mangala. But while De Bruyne has been hugely impressive this season, Sterling and Mangala have failed to justify their price tags and both now appear to be at the stage of their development where they require intensive coaching to ensure that they fulfil their obvious potential.

There is still work to be done with De Bruyne, who showed his inexperience in the Bernabeu with too many stray passes and ill-timed forays forwards, but in the Belgian’s case, it is nothing more than smoothing off some rough edges.

Sterling needs to be taken back to the player who almost helped Liverpool win the Premier League title in 2013-14, the audacious, pacy winger with the ability to make a crucial difference in the final third. The reality for the England international is that his progressed has stalled for two successive season, so Guardiola must spend time with him on the training ground to channel his ability and make him a better player.

With Mangala, the French centre-half possesses exceptional athletic ability and pace, but his concentration levels are worryingly low. Guardiola was able to eradicate similar flaws in Gerard Pique’s game at Barcelona, though, and Mangala is still young enough to be steered in the right direction.