Guardiola playing a whole new ball game
PEP Guardiola again.
Last season it was the massive ones attached to John Stones, and on Tuesday night it was the Football League-affiliated sort.
The EFL want a meeting to ‘fully understand’ City’s concerns about the League Cup sphere, although by the time Yaya Toure had finished describing it as floating, rubbish, worse than the ball accepted as the worst in modern history and substandard even for the Ivory Coast, there really wasn’t much left to uncover.
The ball, the Carabao Cup and the world itself will keep on turning, but the shelf-life of the handbags will outlast any inquest into the Wolves game.
When that happens, Guardiola’s work will be complete.
For a man who often appears uncomfortable in front of the cameras, the former Barcelona manager is as capable of spin as the master press manipulator Jose Mourinho.
Just a week after the United manager took the heat off a drab win by picking a fight after the is talking balls match, the hero to his villain has used exactly the same tactic to disguise the problems his team encountered.
As Guardiola admitted in a section that was not widely picked up, Yaya Toure was stifled by the man-marking job Wolves did on him and the players further forward could not make the difference.
“They defended so deep and tight. The strikers went man to man with Yaya Toure so the spaces were tight,” he said. “In those situations, we need the players to make actions to score goals.”
Wolves caused problems for City’s defence too. Having conceded 14 shots on target in nine Premier League games this season, they allowed five from a Championship side – and better finishing would surely have seen them lose before extra time.
There are evidently caveats nine changes being the most obvious one - but it takes the heat off his players with the ball sideshow. It was the same with Stones back in March. A home draw with Liverpool wasn’t disastrous, but in the same week as crashing out of the Champions League in such limp fashion to Monaco, another failure to beat a top-six side was. With their hopes of silverware diminished and knives sharpening, the defining takeaway from that game was the image of the City manager so vividly gesticulating about what he liked about Stones. That comment didn’t eradicate the player’s or the team’s shortcomings, but it allowed them room away from the microscope to improve, and the Mitre business should work in the same way. Guardiola has a knack for knowing when to take the attention away from his squad. Simon Bajkowski