European nightmare for Man City
Lyon win 3-1, Guardiola’s tactics questioned after thrid straight quarter-final loss
giving his ambition the look of an obscession. It might be hard to question Guardiola, with all he has achieved, but the component parts are too familiar not to prompt criticism.
Throughout this season, Guardiola has frequently referred to the Champions League, without prompting, when asked questions about City’s domestic campaign. There is a noticeably different demeanour to Guardiola in the build-up to Champions League games—he is edgier, even in the group stage where he has a tendency to exaggerate the quality of relatively modest opponents.
The assumption had always been that City, as relative newcomers to the European elite, just needed to adjust to the different demands of the Champions League. “One day we will break this gap to semis,” he said after Saturday’s loss.
But now questions are being asked of Guardiola himself and surprisingly for a man considered to be a master tactician, of his team selection. Guardiola changed the winning formula after the win over Real Madrid, replacing attacking midfielder Phil Foden with an extra defender in 19-year-old Eric Garcia. It was an unexpected decision. Clearly Guardiola felt that he needed to neutralise a Lyon attack that can often take the form of a trident but it quickly became apparent that the move had handed the French side the initiative in midfield. When Guardiola took off defender Fernandinho for winger Riyad Mahrez, in the 56th minute, City’s attacking threat increased significantly and 13 minutes later they drew level. But City’s comfort zone was shortlived. Guardiola’s tactics don’t explain how his side allowed a simple ball over the top to lead to substitute Moussa Dembele’s goal to make it 2-1, nor do they have anything to do with Sterling then missing an absolute sitter from close range. But there still remains the question of whether Guardiola had overcomplicated the team’s task.
But the Spaniard was dismissive of that notion. “In this competition the tactics are not the most important thing,” Guardiola said. “They are so fast and our centrebacks are not so quick so I didn’t want to leave them two versus two. We worked on this, we discussed it and we reviewed this and when you play like we did in the last 20 minutes it shows the system is not the problem.”
The fact, however, remains that a City team which beat Zinedine Zidane’s Real were good enough to beat Lyon and didn’t.