BIG MATCH ANALYSIS

PEP PUTS PAINT BRUSHES AWAY

MANCHESTER CITY manager Pep Guardiola seemed to put the handbrake on a little with the starting line-up he selected and the system he deployed. I think that has to be linked to their Champions League quarter-final first-leg loss last season, when they found themselves 3-0 down to Liverpool at half time. That was what killed their dream of winning Europe’s elite competition in 2017-18. Last night, Guardiola (right) used two holding midfielders in Ilkay Gundogan and Fernandinho, whereas normally he uses one and has two artists on either side. His starting line-up showed how he decided to put his paint brushes away. Kevin De Bruyne was dropped to the substitutes’ bench, while Bernardo Silva was not risked due to injury. Only David Silva was out there. Once the ball got to the final third, City were still dangerous, because Raheem Sterling and Sergio Aguero were there. But this was one of the first times we’ve seen Guardiola adopt a more defensive strategy for a big match, and I feel it was linked to that loss at Anfield. FOR Son Heung-min’s goal, Fabian Delph was beaten by a ball played on the inside of him, then he stopped to appeal for the ball going out of play. The left back lost focus and it proved costly for City.

THE bottom line, when it comes to UEFA’s rules on VAR, is that if you make your body bigger, then a penalty will be given. That’s what the governing body have told us all along, so that’s why it was technically right a penalty was given against Danny Rose. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but I understand it. Whether we like it or not, we have to accept it. It was right that referee Bjorn Kuipers studied the incident on his pitch-side monitor, too, to make him part of the process.