Leipzig 2, City 3: We Won by Outscoring Our Own Goalkeeper. Bench Donnarumma

City won 3-2 in Germany, Haaland got his 13th goal in 9 games against Leipzig, and we out-created them 2.23 xG to 0.87. So why am I writing about a guy I gave a 20? Because Leipzig turned 0.87 xG into 2 goals, and when a team does that to you, you go look at who's standing in goal. Gianluigi Donnarumma needs benched. I don't say that because of one bad moment. I say it because he had four of them in one game, and three points doesn't change what I watched.

In the 15th minute a Nusa shot went through his hands and could have dropped in behind him. What is up with him? Then the 49th minute: Baku beats him at his near post to make it 1-1. Absolutely terrible. Five minutes later Baku hits an easy, routine shot right at him, he drops it, and he nearly gives away a penalty on Rômulo coming in. Then Nusa makes it 2-2 in the 61st minute. It was a great goal, but Donnarumma is usually getting a hand to that one, and right now he isn't, because he has no confidence. I'll give him the save from Baumgartner in the first half, a real one, palmed away from the top corner. It doesn't buy back the rest. FotMob has him at -0.99 goals prevented, so basically one full goal worse than an average keeper on those shots, while Leipzig's guy finished at +0.67 behind a defense that made an own goal. Rulli was on the bench, and he isn't my guy either, but Donnarumma has to sit soon. I don't know exactly when. If he keeps playing like this, it has to be soon.

Before kickoff I said Enzo had been boring, uninspiring and an overall disappointment, and I had Bouaddi in my lineup instead of him. Then he scored the goal that put us 2-1 up, a powerful header in the 58th minute. FINALLY. Credit where it's due, this was Enzo's best game for us. He looked much, much better, and if he starts producing more of that I will be much happier. I'm not all the way there, though, and that's why FotMob has him at 8.3 and I have him at 66. He went out of bounds with a cross in the 24th minute with all the time in the world. He pissed away our first corner in the 35th with an abysmal delivery. In the 68th he hit a huge cross to nobody that landed outside the 18 on the other side, and I honestly don't know what he thinks he's doing. It's like he plays it long and far with a lot of risk just to show he can. Cherki takes risks too, but Cherki's come when we need one. Enzo also went 0 for 3 on crosses, and he was fouled 5 times, so yes, he wins the fouls, but he's always on the ground.

I also had Doku over Iliman Ndiaye in my lineup, so that's two for two: the two guys I left out combined for the go-ahead goal. I still feel fine about the call, because I think we win this game with or without them. Ndiaye has been so due for a goal contribution, I've been calling it for weeks, and that cross was deserved. He hit 2 of 2 crosses, FotMob had him at 8.0, and he worked extremely hard defensively, winning 7 of his 12 ground duels with a tackle and an interception. He's figuring it out. Now he needs to turn games like this into goals and assists every week. His work with Cherki in the 53rd minute got Haaland the first real chance he had all night. Foden is the opposite story. I was excited to see him on the right, and there was a great touch and shot in the 36th minute, plus the ball wide to Ndiaye that started Enzo's goal. But he completed 1 of 6 dribbles, won 3 of 11 ground duels, and got a 56 from me before coming off in the 64th.

Erling Haaland will get the headlines for the winner, and it was a great tap-in, but the 78th minute was all Elliot Anderson. Haaland lays it off, Anderson sprints in behind, surges into the box, and rolls a perfect ball across. He did all of the work. That's why I love him pushing into an 8/10 role instead of sitting deep. FotMob made him player of the match at 8.7 with 10 of 11 ground duels and 7 tackles. I had him at 72 in the moment and missed some of his best stuff live. That's on me. He's an 81. As for Haaland, he had 18 touches in 90 minutes and only 6 in the box, but all 3 of his shots were on target. That's the part that drives me nuts. In the 21st minute we won the ball in our half, Cherki had it, Haaland was running down the central channel, and the pass never came. We don't look to send him early the way KDB used to. Play him. It's on everyone: the wingers need to get it in to him earlier and get on the same page with him, and Cherki had a couple of chances in our own half to turn and send him through and didn't.

I wanted to see Khusanov and Guéhi together because I think it's between the two of them for who starts next to Dias long term. Tonight wasn't close. Abdukodir Khusanov is our best defender and he is seriously becoming a world-class talent: 86 of 90 passes, 4 interceptions, 6 clearances and FotMob's most defensive contributions on our side with 12. Guéhi gave the ball away again in the 9th minute, and he cannot be making these mistakes consistently. FotMob's 6.8 is too nice. I also said Nunes would silence Nusa. He didn't. Nusa scored, created 4 chances and finished at 8.2 on FotMob, so put that one on my tab.

Doku came on for Foden in the 64th minute and I wanted to see if the super-sub version would show up. He mostly did. He laid off Nunes in the move that ended with Cherki's shot being saved, and in the 84th he danced past his man and clipped a cross that Cherki hit off the underside of the crossbar. Then in the 92nd minute he's clean through on the counter with Haaland screaming for it, and he sends it over from 10 yards. He must be more clinical there. Where is my end of last season Doku king? He picked up a yellow for kicking the ball away too, in case we needed more stress.

Zoom out and it's the same concerns as the last few weeks. Teams are much more comfortable pressing us high now, and we should be shredding that with progressive passing, but the first half was lackluster, boring and unimaginative. The only reason we led at the break was a great ball across to Nico O'Reilly, whose delivery Lukeba put into his own net in the 37th minute. And when Nunes and O'Reilly push up the way this system asks them to, we get caught: Leipzig had a counter in the 17th minute with runners against our back line, and getting hit like that 2 or 3 times a game is a gamble. I understand the philosophy. I like what Maresca did with the subs in the 83rd minute, and Leipzig had 3 yellows by the 48th minute, so we knew who to go at. We still needed a Raum free kick to hit the bar and a Gruda finish to get called offside. We're shaky because of mistakes, not because of the football, and those mistakes are extremely costly with the way Maresca sets us up. I also think he's slowly regressing at profiling players and putting them in the right spots, and somebody needs to figure out what the hell he's doing there. But this team excites me too. We're creating a lot of chances and just not getting on the end of them, and that's chemistry and cohesion. If we're still wasting this many after Boxing Day, I'll have a lot more criticism. Until then, start with the easy fix and bench Donnarumma.