PEP DEFENDS HIS QUAD ROTATION
Defeat is price City pay to fight on all fronts
IF MANCHESTER CITY make the Champions League semi-finals this week, this shock defeat will have been a price worth paying.
Pep Guardiola left out Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Ruben Dias – arguably his three most influential players – ahead of Wednesday’s crunch return leg at Borussia Dortmund.
Oddly, Guardiola refused to admit their omission was down to that tie – and the fact City are chasing a Quadruple – but his team selection said otherwise, with defeat ultimately a consequence of that decision.
But with a 14-point lead in the Premier League before the match, Guardiola could afford to make wholesale changes.
Wednesday is City’s biggest game of the season so far, not that Guardiola was in the mood to acknowledge it.
“Listen, I made changes, but maybe I will play the same team in Dortmund,” said Guardiola. “I’ve said many times that they play because I want to let them play, not because I reserve these players. I demand of every team I send out that they win. I don’t select on the basis of competitions. I select every team to win the specific game.
“With 27 of 29 games won, the rotation was exceptional, wasn’t it – and now it’s a problem?
“It can be possible, but also the reason why we lose can also not be down to the selection. You don’t know and I don’t know either.
“If you tell me that if the others play, you can assure me 100 per cent we’d have won, then you can be a perfect manager. I just know that with the guys who played we conceded a goal that was avoidable so we have to be more aggressive, more concentrated. We created enough chances to win.”
Guardiola is right: more often than not he gets his team selection correct – 27 wins out of City’s past 29 games in all competitions is testimony to that. But, here, he would have been better served conceding he took a gamble with his line-up – because he could – and it ended up backfiring.
City dominated after Leeds skipper Liam Cooper was sent off just before half-time for a reckless tackle on Gabriel Jesus, following a VAR review.
But Leeds soaked up the pressure, defending with discipline, before snatching the win in added-time with Stuart Dallas claiming his second of the game after a swift break.
Ferran Torres had levelled with 14 minutes to go but, in their eagerness to win, City left themselves vulnerable on the counter-attack.
Having reclaimed their status as the country’s dominant football force this season, conquering Europe is the next step for Guardiola’s men.
If that means suffering a defeat like this to achieve that goal, they will happily take it.
MAN CITY (4-3-3): Ederson 6; Cancelo 5, Stones 7, Ake 6 (Gundogan 58, 6), Mendy 5 (Foden 74); Silva 7, Fernandinho 6, Zinchenko 6; Torres 7, Jesus 5, Sterling 5. Goal: Torres 76. LEEDS (4-1-4-1): Meslier 7; Ayling 7, Llorente 7, Cooper, 5, Alioski 7; Phillips 8; Raphinha 7 (Shackleton 90), Dallas 8, Roberts 6 (Koch 63, 7), Costa 7; Bamford 6 (Struijk 45, 7). Sent off: Cooper 45. Goals: Dallas 42, 90.