Pep Guardiola has explained the real reason why he didn’t make any substitutions during Manchester City’s recent match against Real Madrid.
City secured a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final tie against the Spanish giants.
City dominated the first half at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, but had to come from behind after Vinicius Junior gave the hosts the lead.
Kevin de Bruyne scored a superb equaliser after half-time, but in parts of the second half City struggled to play their usual game as Madrid upped the pressure.
At times City’s players looked tired, but Guardiola chose not to make any substitutions at all.
Fans and pundits questioned his decision given City’s packed fixture schedule, with a crucial Premier League clash with Everton coming up on Sunday before the second leg against Madrid just three days later.
What did Guardiola say?
Speaking to the media ahead of his side’s trip to Goodison Park, Guardiola explained his decision not to turn to fresh legs on the bench.
“I thought about making subs in Madrid but I decided for the fact that the players on the bench are so dynamic in their movements, Phil [Foden], Julian [Alvarez], Riyad [Mahrez],” he said.
“The impact [they would have had]… in that movement we didn’t need that, to not increase our rhythm to make our other players on the pitch…a high level.
“Everyone will be important with so many games.”
What does Guardiola mean?
On a surface level it’s not immediately clear what Guardiola meant, but it’s likely he didn’t want to introduce any dynamic, direct players into a game he wanted his side to control.
City scored against the run of play in Madrid, but they started to reassert their control as the half went on.
The ‘pausa’ players in City’s squad – those more likely to play a ‘thousand million passes’ as Guardiola likes to say – were already on the pitch.
If you don’t want to risk losing control of a game, you don’t want to be taking off the likes of Bernardo Silva, Jack Grealish, Rodri and Ilkay Gundogan.
City’s main options on the bench were Foden, Alvarez and Mahrez. The latter is more of a ‘control’ kind of player, but Guardiola must not have wanted to disrupt the rhythm of his side.
