Manchester City were thrashed by Real Madrid after Pep Guardiola made seven changes to his starting lineup, but the manager has attempted to play down his decision to switch things up.
When Manchester City travelled to Madrid, there were expectations of a victory, considering their form in recent weeks.
Real Madrid on the other hand have struggled in La Liga of late and were not overly convincing against Benfica in the Champions League play-off round.
Despite this, the hosts ran away with the game in the first half, as Federico Valverde scored a hat-trick to make the score 3-0 before the break.
Man City only had one occasion when they looked likely to score and that was when Nico O’Reilly forced Thibaut Courtois into a great save. However, the scoreline remained heavily in favour of Real Madrid, causing questions to be asked of Pep Guardiola.
Pep Guardiola downplays the changes to Manchester City’s team
Based on the game, it is hard not to argue that Guardiola made some mistakes against Real Madrid in the way he set up his side.
However, the Man City boss does not believe he changed things around as much as people are saying. He has also attempted to justify his inclusion of players such as Savinho and Jeremy Doku, who stood out against Newcastle last weekend.
Guardiola said in his post-match press conference: “Listen, how many times did Nico O’Reilly play left-back this season? How many?
“The only adjustment was [Abdukodir] Khusanov because Vinicius moves in that area, and we wanted a guy who doesn’t think much to attack.
“The rest? [Wingers?] Yeah, injured two months, yeah. And they played incredible; Savinho in Newcastle, Jeremy [Doku] always is an incredible threat.
“And people with experience, Bernardo [Silva] and Rodri, runners with Nico [O’Reilly] and Antoine [Semenyo], the sense of goal that all of them have, set-pieces – that was the idea.”
He added: “Rotation? I’ve done it in Newcastle, nine players different. I understand what I’m saying; the target is wingers to try to drop them, people in the middle in pockets to arrive close to the box, control second structures with experienced players, fast players behind – that was the idea.”
Man City have suffered their worst defeat in over a year
Guardiola can attempt to justify his team selection all he wants, but Man City have just recorded their heaviest defeat since February last year.
Real Madrid outplayed his side on the night and he was tactically outclassed by Alvaro Arebola, which is because of the changes he made.
City had a winning formula in place and Guardiola has ripped that up and gone for something different. It did not work and now he needs to start taking some responsibility.
