CITY’S RED MIST
Walker loses head as Pep pays for leaving kids out
THE lads left at home with their feet up had a good night. Bernardo Silva, rodri and Aymeric Laporte in town; Joao Cancelo in the suburbs. Fancy becoming better footballers while watching TV in your living room. Must be nice.
This did not have to be a pointless exercise for Manchester City and Pep Guardiola won’t have planned for that but that is what it appeared on the surface. A meaningless defeat behind closed doors. Move on quickly.
But that is not quite the story and perhaps this all told Guardiola a little bit extra about his players. Notably, the application of some.
Kyle Walker’s ridiculous red card, for a petulant kick at Andre Silva, capped a bad night compounded by injuries to Phil Foden and Nathan Ake. And with that, the man who insists he does not have favoured XIs might well stick to one in the coming weeks — and it may not include a few of the stellar names on display in Leipzig.
Leggy without Silva. Weaker without rodri. Porous without Laporte. unimaginative without Cancelo. They will be back against Wolves on Saturday if fit.
The result didn’t matter — City had won the group and are looking ahead to the Champions League last 16 in February, albeit without Walker — but the performance was less than good. The two goals that rB Leipzig scored, from Dominik Szoboszlai and Andre Silva, were courtesy of defensive mis-haps.
The real tragedy was that, given the display, Guardiola opted against using any of his five academy products on the bench until the final three minutes, when Cole Palmer emerged. He replaced Kevin De Bruyne, guilty of forcing things as he strove for rhythm.
Guardiola claimed City’s secondhalf display was better, although it could not have been any worse than what had gone before. They were dozy on a night when a few players were given the chance to put pressure on those rested.
With a string of decent saves, Zack Steffen was the only starter to remind Guardiola who he is and, well, he’s not about to replace Ederson, is he?
Steffen could do nothing about Leipzig’s opener, scored by young Hungary international Szoboszlai after 24 minutes. City were split in two by Konrad Laimer’s inventive pass with the outside of his boot, Szoboszlai making the most of the vast expanse between Walker and John Stones to round the keeper.
Either side of that, Steffen kept City in it. The repelling of Andre Silva’s header from six yards — after Ilkay Gundogan had ceded possession in his own half — was the pick of the bunch.
Gundogan looked like somebody who would have benefited from a staycation. Guardiola maintained that the German needed minutes because he didn’t play at Aston Villa last week.
Laimer had earlier almost squeezed an effort inside the near post, only for Ederson’s understudy to smartly dive down, while Steffen also thwarted Emil Forsberg when City were again opened up by the impressive Laimer.
As always, there were chances for the visitors — Ake ballooned a header over and Foden struck a post via a sprawling Peter Gulacsi save — but that familiar dominance was lacking. Sluggish in midfield, passive on the ball.
only last week, Foden was removed as a precaution after struggling with his ankle and raheem Sterling’s introduction did liven City up. He ought to have been given a penalty when bundled over in the box.
‘We had problems and they have a really good team,’ Guardiola said. ‘The second half was much, much better but we made one or two mistakes and they punished us.’ Andre Silva had drilled a 71stminute shot beyond Steffen by that point, Leipzig pouncing on poor play by Stones to work the ball across to their summer signing from Frankfurt, one whom City had a brief look at themselves.
City did source an unlikely route back into the game when oleksandr Zinchenko made a rare foray into the final third, whipping over a super cross for the stooping riyad Mahrez to head past Gulacsi with 14 minutes left.
Jack Grealish went close, then Walker lost his head as he needlessly hacked at Leipzig’s second goalscorer. He didn’t make much contact but trudged off without complaint and now has at least one night off of his own when City try to progress to the quarterfinals. It might be more by the time uEFA have a look at the incident. A shambolic yet fitting end.