The half-time whistle sounded. Greeted with no booing. Greeted with no clapping. Simply silence, an accepting rotation to the aisles and strolling in unison away from the stands as if in some slow-moving protest.
A wierd, unusual evening for Manchester Metropolis. Pep Guardiola doesn’t make 10 adjustments. By no means, ever. Definitely not within the Champions League. Even within the outdated European format, after they had confirmed themselves as good-looking group winners, Metropolis performed their full first crew. It turned a working joke.
So when Guardiola labelled a fifth recreation of this season towards Bayer Leverkusen, third within the Bundesliga, a ‘remaining’, the thought of one thing wholesale from defeat in Newcastle wasn’t on the radar. So removed from the radar that it would as effectively have been lined up by Savinho.
This choice was a message. Squad recreation, in spite of everything. Guardiola had named the identical crew for the final three Premier League video games as a result of clearly these are the blokes he’s trusting in the meanwhile. Realizing that can’t final over the winter interval – particularly Christmas – he clearly wished to see who is ready to get up for him.
Asking these questions is okay however it’s important to be prepared for the reply. And that was not fairly for Metropolis, whose followers had been caught in stasis at a mind-bending efficiency that resembled among the dirge served up final 12 months.
That stated, they didn’t truly lose a European residence recreation final 12 months. This was a primary residence defeat in a bunch match since 2018.
It was a wierd evening for Manchester Metropolis as they had been overwhelmed 2-0 by Bayer Leverkusen
Pep Guardiola made an astonishing 10 adjustments towards the German aspect and paid the value
The house assist had been virtually surprised into silence in what turned a ‘squad recreation’ for Metropolis
The end result might be relatively inconsequential, on condition that Metropolis will progress into the knockout levels. The deeper which means behind the setback is extra urgent and supplies issues for Guardiola to repair in the event that they do have ambitions of competing on a number of fronts throughout a marketing campaign Arsenal are threatening to dominate.
Like why the press was so haphazard as a result of, though these gamers by no means characteristic collectively, the essential rules stay the identical. Or how Nathan Ake, overwhelmed within the air by a ghosting Patrik Schick for Leverkusen’s second, seems as if his race is now run on the highest stage. And why James Trafford didn’t claw the header clear.
Or why Rayan Ait-Nouri didn’t know whether or not to stay or twist, embarrassingly caught out of place, for Alejandro Grimaldo’s opening objective halfway by means of the primary half.
Or why Oscar Bobb is so missing in confidence that he solely desires to play sideways. Or why Rico Lewis, one in all solely a few purposeful performers, was sacrificed at half-time. Or why Tijjani Reijnders chooses to simply always welly photographs straight at goalkeepers. The Dutchman dawdled into the field with all of the abandon of a grazing tortoise, seemingly boring defenders into clearing a path.
There might be some who surprise why Guardiola selected to select the entire squad gamers collectively. There is perhaps some who consider it set them as much as fail. He’ll argue that any crew Metropolis title is sweet sufficient to beat most opposition, particularly at residence, and he could be proper.
In that case, there must be some introspection on precisely how and why this inertia was allowed to take maintain. To observe Omar Marmoush – two objectives scored since April, and a kind of at Swansea within the Carabao Cup – aggressively gee up a bemused crowd felt greater than a contact odd.
Ambiance works each methods and solely when Metropolis constructed some type of momentum – as soon as Erling Haaland, Phil Foden, Rayan Cherki and Jeremy Doku climbed off the bench – did this truly resemble a correct contest.
Guardiola sending for these 4, plus Nico O’Reilly, advised that the take a look at and the experiment needed to come to an finish – and that he himself thought that the end result did want recovering.
The end result might be relatively inconsequential, given Metropolis will progress into the knockout levels
However the deeper which means behind the loss is extra urgent for Guardiola in his hunt for trophies
Metropolis objective machine Erling Haaland got here on within the second half however couldn’t rescue the defeat
However Leverkusen are robust, their solely defeats in all competitions since August coming towards Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich. Chucking the names on was no assure of a reprieve.
Finally, they’ll earn a kind of within the prolonged league stage. A house tie with Galatasaray and away journey to Bodo/Glimt supply two vital alternatives to type qualification out. However will Guardiola be fairly so fast to belief those that have spent a lot of the season enjoying second fiddle? Unlikely.
