Pundit Rob Green has claimed that Manchester City didn’t have any quality substitutes to help them beat Liverpool.
After drawing 4-4 against Chelsea prior to the latest international break, the Citizens picked up another point this afternoon with a 1-1 draw at home against Liverpool.
The Blues went in at halftime 1-0 up thanks to a goal from Erling Haaland, only for Trent Alexander-Arnold to score an equaliser for his side.
With the home side unable to find a later winner, one pundit made a claim about why City may have been at a disadvantage in terms of being able to secure all three points on this occasion.
Green criticises City’s bench options
Towards the end of the match, posted on BBC Sport’s live coverage tracker, Green had this to say about City’s options from the bench.
He said: “It’s got touches of a team going to Manchester City and you stay in it and go for it in the last 10 minutes of the game. But when you look at the City bench, there isn’t much to it. There aren’t any players you turn to, to get another goal.”
With City having Kevin De Bruyne, Matheus Nunes, Jack Grealish and Mateo Kovacic unavailable, their bench included Stefan Ortega, Scott Carson, Rico Lewis, John Stones, Josko Gvardiol, Sergio Gomez, Kalvin Phillips and Oscar Bobb.
So with Bobb being the only attacking option City had on the bench this afternoon, it’s easy to see why Green didn’t feel that Guardiola had any potential game-changers he could call up to help his side turn the tables on their opponents and find a winner.
Taking into account how the Manchester club have the smallest squad in the Premier League with 24 players, it’s clear that if they have players out unavailable, they will struggle for top-quality outfield options compared to other sides in the division.
