Guardiola’s gamble may be costly in race for title
PEP PICKS STRONG SIDE AHEAD OF HECTIC SCHEDULE
KEVIN de Bruyne hobbling to the touchline was exactly what City didn’t want to see.
Ultimately, the club’s best player appeared to shrug off a heavy challenge but exactly how satisfactory this FA Cup stroll was for the squad will only become apparent in a week’s time after league matches with Brighton and Crystal Palace.
Given how emphatically Championship side Birmingham City were swatted away, Pep Guardiola will have to hope that the momentum gained from a sixth consecutive victory in all competitions - their best run of the season - is not cancelled out by any fitness concerns.
It was a ludicrously strong team he selected, especially given the circumstances of this season and everything that has been said - both at City and beyond - about player fatigue.
Having warned that De Bruyne needs to be kept in top condition for the league, Guardiola started the Belgian ahead of
Wednesday’s teatime game at Brighton. Having made the call that they would like their top youngsters to stay with them for the second half of the season rather than go out on loan, Taylor Harwood-Bellis was on the bench because Ruben Dias started again and Kyle Walker was playing there in a position that is not his natural one.
Guardiola is perfectly entitled to make these decisions, and it is because of such calls that they won eight of nine domestic trophies between 2018 and 2020 and are 90 minutes away from a fourth successive Carabao Cup triumph.
Where Manuel Pellegrini made a habit of messing up in the competition - going out to lower league opposition in the form of Wigan and Middlesbrough before sending the kids out to a Stamford Bridge thumping to prioritise a Champions League game against Dynamo Kiev - Guardiola has refused to let up in any tournament and has two semi-finals and a winners’ medal in this one to show for it.
The players gave exactly the performance expected of them, ki killing any hopes of an up upset within the first 15 m minutes with Bernardo Si Silva’s first two goals of the se season.
In the eighth minute, the Portugal international showed perfect technique to steer a high half-volley beyond keeper Andres Prieto and punish some slack defending. Shortly after, a crisp team move was lit up by an inspired ball into the box for De Bruyne from Riyad Mahrez and Bernardo snaffled up the cutback.
Having struggled to stand out as a makeshift centre-forward against United, Mahrez was in his element here - back on the right wing, cutting in against players that he was at least one cut above.
Phil Foden’s finish from outside the box to make it three before half-time was well-struck, but made by the jinking run and accurate pass of his team-mate.
That third goal was enough for Guardiola to send John Stones, Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Felix Nmecha out to warm up, and the trio came on for the second half in place of De Bruyne, Dias, and Joao Cancelo - arguably City’s three most important outfield players at the minute.
With Rodri taken off soon after the hour mark, the game petered out with both teams very much aware the contest
was long since over. City slackened off too much, making Zack Steffen busier than he needed to be in the closing stages, yet the verve of the visitors was not enough to be rewarded with a goal.
It is easy to see why Guardiola goes so strong in such games as he seeks to keep standards and momentum within the squad, and his record is difficult to argue with.
A team that has struggled for form and tempo all season seemed to turn the corner in a Boxing Day win over Newcastle, and a Covid outbreak that made eight first-team players unavailable has not been enough to stem that form.
This is now City’s best run of form since the end of the 2018/19 season when they completed an unprecedented domestic clean sweep - and it is now five straight games that they have scored at least two goals in.
With Gabriel Jesus back and Ferran Torres in training and feeling no ill-effects of his positive Covid test after completing his self-isolation period, that should, in theory, get even better - and there is still Sergio Aguero to come, training well but unavailable yesterday after he came into contact with someone with Covid symptoms.
The defence, meanwhile, remains as miserly as ever.
Birmingham created more chances than Guardiola would have liked, but the experience of first Dias and then Stones was integral to keeping yet another clean sheet - their 10th in the last 13 games. Young defender Harwood-Bellis contributed to this latest one with an accomplished 45 minutes.
Such an easy victory helps set up a perfect platform for what is an inviting set of fixtures for the Blues – games with
City youngster Felix Nmecha
Brighton, Palace, Villa (all home), West Brom (away), Sheffield United (home) and Burnley (away) before their trip to Anfield next month.
With Liverpool stuttering, it is not unthinkable that City could head to Merseyside ahead of their hosts in the table for the first time since their Centurions campaign.
Only after the games against Brighton and Palace at the Etihad in the next week will the logic of playing such a strong team for this mismatch be known fully though. More energetic performances with De Bruyne and his supporting cast doing the damage and this game will be seen as an important cog in a rolling juggernaut, but any faltering in the league and playing such a strong team here will be questioned.
As his record suggests, Guardiola is usually right about these things.