Pep’s struggles continue as Manchester City fall to Spurs

A late winner by Heung Min-Son gave Tottenham the win against Manchester City in their first leg of the Champions League.

Sometimes someone can be too smart for their own good and Pep Guardiola could have been a victim of that in Manchester City’s loss to Tottenham. Pep’s been known to play players out of position (see Javier Mascherano, Fabian Delph) and for the most part it works out. But his tinkering backfired this time around and it had little to do with converting a midfielder to a center-back. No, this time it was leaving his two best players, Leroy Sane and Kevin de Bruyne, on the bench.

On the road, Pep opted to start Mahrez up top with Kun Aguero and Raheem Sterling. Once the game got underway it looked that maybe City would be okay with a draw or try to eke out a one-goal win. His plan almost worked as City got a penalty in the first half. But Kun Aguero missed the chance to put City up top.

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Still, the plan was more or less working and when Harry Kane had to leave the game due to an injury, a draw looked like the best Spurs could hope for. After Kane was taken off, City was on the front foot and knocking on the door looking for a goal. But Son Heung-min put Spurs ahead after saving a ball from going out for a goal kick, leaving behind Fabian Delph, and slotting his shot past Ederson who should have done better. It wasn’t until the 89th minute where Pep finally brought on Sane and De Bruyne but by that point ,it was too late.

City’s defeat at Spurs added toward Pep Guardiola’s record on the road. The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager has not won a knockout Champions League away game since 2011.

A weird stat for what many consider the best manager currently in the game. He’s come under some criticism but for the most part, his conservative strategy was working. Tottenham were not creating many chances and there were times where Manchester City were on top of them looking like a goal from City was just a matter of time. Had Kun Aguero converted the penalty, we may very well be talking about a different outcome and Pep looks like a genius.

At the same time, sometimes keeping it simple is the best plan. Playing your best players is a no-brainer but battling for a league title and with two more games against Spurs following this one, perhaps Pep wanted to keep his players fresh or not show all of his tricks straight away. Again, the narrative completely changed with the Son goal and Aguero miss.

But it’s still only a one-goal deficit heading back to the Etihad. With both Sane and De Bruyne likely to feature from the start and with Harry Kane‘s availability in doubt, it was not the worst result for City and are still favorites to progress to the next round. But the pressure will be on them and their manager as they cannot afford another elimination at the hands of a Premiere League side.