After Manchester City drew 1-1 to Newcastle United, Pep Guardiola would not have had many reasons to panic.
St. James’ Park is one of the most difficult away grounds to visit for any team in the Premier League — with City winning, drawing and lose one game apiece in their last three games against Eddie Howe’s stadium in all competitions.
Furthermore, it is far from the end of the world for Pep Guardiola’s men to be dropping points six games into the season — considering it is too early into the campaign to make any major conclusions about any team in England.
Manchester City are sitting in second place on goal difference, just one point behind league leaders Liverpool.
Adapting to life without Rodri was always going to be a challenging task and one that could take time.
However, their recent result seemed destined from the time both teams for Saturday’s clash were announced.
The Man City team Guardiola picked vs Newcastle was destined to drop points
Pep Guardiola decided to pick an incredibly conservative line-up to face Newcastle.
Especially considering Kevin De Bruyne was ruled out due to injury, Manchester City were in desperate need of a creative spark in their side.
Savinho has already managed to register two assists in his four league starts at City.
Last season, the Brazilian international was the joint third-highest in La Liga’s charts for the most assists in the division (10) during his loan stint at Girona — signaling how creative a winger he is.
As for Phil Foden, he showcased during the previous season that he is the rightful heir to De Bruyne.
Yet, both Savinho and Foden watched from the sidelines as an attacking quintet of Rico Lewis, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish were asked to serve Erling Haaland.
Apart from Gundogan (13 goals in the 2020/2021 campaign), none of the aforementioned players have ever either scored or assisted 10 or more goals in the Premier League in a season during their respective spells at the Etihad Stadium.
While Grealish set Josko Gvardiol’s opener up and had a bright game, it was clear to see that City’s line-up lacked any real X-factor in the final third.
However, the risk-averse nature of the side meant that the Premier League champions failed to clear too many clear-cut chances and apart from Gvardiol’s moment of magic, they were unsurprisingly toothless in attack.
If Pep Guardiola’s thinking was to exact absolute control against a Newcastle side that could threaten them on the break due to their speed, directness and a missing Rodri, they managed to in any case and often looked like they could cause an upset.
Guardiola made some poor player profiling decisions against Newcastle
One area where Pep Guardiola’s decisions were also quite surprising were his player profiling choices.
While Gundogan is capable of producing a moment of magic in the final third, he rarely ever played as an out-and-out attacking midfielder during his previous spell at City.
The German was asked to play the same role against Arsenal — against whom his performance fizzled out in the second half as well.
A rationale to start the 33-year-old as a number 10 could be due to his eye for goal.
But the former Barcelona midfielder specialises in making late runs in and around the box and going for goal rather being deployed in such advanced positions.
Gundogan had a game to forget — often looking extremely clumsy in possession, getting dispossessed and making the bizarre decision of trying to clip Nick Pope from distance despite having the chance to play in Erling Haaland one-on-one with a Newcastle defender.
The poor execution of the five-time Premier League winner’s actions cannot be attributed to Guardiola.
But Pep Guardiola’s decision to play Gundogan as a number 10 is, especially when Foden won the PFA Players’ Player of the Year during the 2023/2024 season and eventually replaced the former anyway.
Similarly, it comes as a surprise how Pep Guardiola continues to put faith in Bernardo as a wide player.
In May, the £43 million man admitted in an interview with the Premier League back in May that he is no longer the world-class dribbler he used to be.
“I think I was actually a much better dribbler in the beginning of my career than I am now. So now, I take a little bit less risk than I used to take, for example at Monaco.”
“I think I lost it a little bit but I also gained on other things, so I developed as a player and now I’m a much different player than I was at the beginning of my career.”
According to Sofascore, the 30-year-old completed none of his three dribble attempts and created no chances.
In fairness, the Portuguese international has never been hugely creative or productive while admitting to no longer being the elite dribbler he was a few years ago; two traits than any top-class winger needs.
If Pep Guardiola’s rationale was to start Bernardo due to his ability to retain the ball, considering Grealish was already in the team as well as technically secure players like Gundogan and Lewis, it emphasises how overtly safe the side was.
Yet, Guardiola brought Savinho and even Jeremy Doku on in the last 10 minutes of regulation time while Foden also replaced Gundogan in the 66th minute; three players who unsurprisingly added an injection of creativity, pace and unpredictability to the side’s attack.
At right-back as well, Kyle Walker kept his place and while he largely had a quality game, the City skipper was once again at fault for another goal.
Walker played Anthony Gordon onside, who won a spot-kick and eventually levelled the scoreline for Newcastle from 12 yards out.
Against Watford, the former Tottenham Hotspur defender’s weak clearance gave Tom Ince the chance to score a brilliant strike from outside the box while he failed to tightly mark Gabriel Magalhaes in the build-up to his headed goal last weekend.
Walker continues to be a liability at the back since last season and not offer much going forward but Guardiola continues to play him regularly.
Pep Guardiola remains an elite manager and one of the greatest coaches in the history of the game but he made plenty of mistakes, both in terms of his team selection and player profiling — much like any tactician and they played a huge role in his side’s latest draw.
