Pep Guardiola may have to reply to 4 baffling mistakes after Manchester City didn’t capitalise on Arsenal’s Premier League title slip-up on Sunday. City fell to a 1-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur, extending their woeful record on the Lilywhites’ latest home stadium.
Harry Kane took advantage of a woeful error from the visitors to notch his 267th Spurs goal, surpassing Jimmy Greaves because the north Londoners’ top goalscorer of all time.
Express Sport identifies 4 questionable decisions Guardiola may regret after slumping to a different defeat by the hands of Tottenham.
Why did he bench De Bruyne?
Before kick-off, Guardiola confirmed that dropping Kevin De Bruyne to the bench was a ‘tactical’ decision after the Belgian was also missing from the starting line-up within the 4-2 conquer Spurs last month.
But City’s lack of creativity was clear in an uninspiring showing for the primary hour on Sunday before they miraculously improved when De Bruyne was introduced.
Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez were starved of service, especially the previous, who looked frustrated after making a series of runs to no response from the visitors’ midfield.
Guardiola has once more been accused of over-thinking big games, which has cost him up to now during his seven-year tenure.
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Why did he instruct to play out the back?
City were the masters of their very own downfall once they fell 2-0 behind to Spurs within the reverse fixture, cheaply giving the ball away across the box for Dejan Kulusevski’s opener.
It was a costly repeat on Sunday, with Rodri the offender.
The Spaniard took an excessive amount of time on the ball before being robbed by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and punished by Kane.
Guardiola has formed his relentless trophy-collecting era at Man City on an unmatchable ball-playing style. But he should’ve seen the danger signs and adapted.
Why did he offload Cancelo?
Tottenham found most of their joy in the primary half down the suitable. Last season, Joao Cancelo would have had that flank on lock as arguably the Premier League’s best full-back.
As City slumped to defeat in north London, Cancelo was playing for Bayern Munich of their Bundesliga win at Wolfsburg.
The 28-year-old registered his second assist in as many games for the Bavarian giants since his shock move late in January.
Rico Lewis has enjoyed a brilliant begin to life within the senior frame. But Guardiola allowed one among his best players to go away last month and has ultimately paid the value.
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