Facing Bayer Leverkusen from Germany, Pep Guardiola surprised everyone by making 10 changes to Man City 's starting lineup compared to the clash with Newcastle (lost 1-2) last weekend.
Nico Gonzalez was the only remaining name, given the field from the start by the Spanish captain, while the trump cards Haaland, Donnarumma and Phil Foden were all on the bench.
People wonder if Pep is thinking too much about his 100th match in the Champions League with Man City or if this master underestimated Leverkusen, so he made the above confusing decision.
What was the result? Man City played poorly at Etihad, Pep 'corrected' in the second half without any results, leading to a 0-2 loss to Leverkusen, thanks to goals from Alejandro Grimaldo (23') and Patrick Schick (54').
After the match, Pep Guardiola admitted a fatal mistake when making too many changes in the starting lineup of Man City against Leverkusen:
“ It’s true that I made too many changes. The season is long and Man City play every 2-3 days, but looking at the result against Leverkusen, maybe I rotated a bit too much.
Things have come to this, I take full responsibility .
He gave the reason for his decision: “ From now until March next year, Man City will play 3-4 matches per day. No one can compete with such a dense schedule, so I have to rotate.
Against Leverkusen, we were playing at home and in a good position in the Champions League. I made changes and it didn’t work so we had to accept it .”
The Man City captain assessed the match: “ I think the players played in a way to try not to make mistakes, instead of doing what we have to do. Both with and without the ball, we were not aggressive. Leverkusen are a really strong team. I congratulate them .”
After 5 matches played, Man City currently has 10 points (3 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss), temporarily ranked 6th on the rankings.
Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/ket-qua-man-city-vs-leverkusen-pep-guardiola-nhan-sai-lam-tai-hai-2466091.html
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