Pep Guardiola had a few words with Stefan Ortega as Manchester City suffered a 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup Third Round.
It was Neil Lennon – covering the game on BBC Radio 5 Live – who spotted the interaction.
So, why was Pep Guardiola upset with Stefan Ortega during Manchester City‘s 1-0 defeat? Let’s take a look…
What’s the story?
Well, it goes without saying that the Spaniard wants his Manchester City side to play out from the back as much as possible.
On one occasion at St James’ Park last night, Ortega hoofed the ball long when Guardiola felt there was no need to do so, which led to the 52-year-old “having a few words” with the German.
Lennon said on BBC Radio 5 Live: “Guardiola is having a few words with the goalkeeper for going long rather than playing it out from the back.”
Clearly, Ortega did not meet expectations in this one moment, although the statistics show that the £55,000-a-week man performed quite well when it came to passing.
Stefan Ortega impressed for Manchester City
According to WhoScored, the 30-year-old found a teammate with seven of his 11 attempted long range passes, and left Tyneside with a pass success rate of 86.1%.
To offer a comparison, Ederson completed nine of his attempted 21 long range passes in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest, registering a 65.7% pass success rate.
Ortega also made a fine save in the first-half as Jacob Murphy raced clear after a mistake from Josko Gvardiol, sticking out a leg to spare the Croatia international’s blushes.
Presumably, the intensity of the atmosphere inside St James’ Park and memories of last season’s embarrassing Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Southampton may have been playing on Guardiola’s mind when he had words with Ortega, as the German delivered a solid overall performance.
