The likes of Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez were left on the bench (Picture: Getty)
Pep Guardiola has defended his decision not to make any substitutions in Manchester City’s 1-1 draw away to RB Leipzig in the last 16 of the Champions League on Wednesday night.
The reigning Premier League champions gave an assured first-half performance in Germany and took a deserved lead through Riyad Mahrez.
However, they were pegged back in the second half by a towering header from Josko Gvardiol with Leipzig looking far more dangerous after the restart.
Following the equaliser, City once against asserted themselves on the match and felt they should have been awarded a late penalty for a handball from Benjamin Henrichs – though ex-referee Peter Walton claims the incident was not even checked by VAR.
Despite City pushing for a late winner to take back to the Etihad, Guardiola made no changes – leaving the likes of Julian Alvarez and Phil Foden on the bench – and the Spaniard has passionately defended his decision to stick with the XI already on the pitch.
Asked why he made no subs at his post-match press conference, Guardiola replied: ‘I have the opportunity as a rule to make five substitutions. But I am the manager and I apply it and I take it if I want.
‘So that doesn’t mean that because I have five substitutions I have to do five substitutions. And I am a so good manager to decide what I have to do or not.’
Foden and Alvarez stayed on the bench in Leipzig (Picture: Getty)
He continued: ‘I was really pleased with what I was seeing. So I thought of course with Phil to have this talent to do this. But after the goal I thought immediately to put Phil, but immediately we took again the game in our hands and then with this control that we had.
‘Because they play with six up front, we play with the two-two plus the full-backs plus the wingers, four players, incredible runners, and in that position and the way they play you have to have a lot of control.
‘That’s why the players that we had, like Gundo, like Riyad, the extra passes they were doing are what we need, especially in the first leg. Maybe in the second leg I will decide to be crazy and play with nine strikers!
‘But in this game I felt – I’ve been in this country, I’ve analysed as much as possible with my people – I needed this type of control because otherwise it becomes up-and-down and open.
‘Of course it was open, there were one or two actions from Gundo to pass the ball to Erling that they blocked, but in these type of situations they are better. German teams they are better than us [in transition].’
He added to BT Sport: ‘I saw the team good, especially in the middle. Of course I thought about Phil [Foden] but in the end I decided to continue with what I had, especially the back four. Bernardo was giving a lot of control in the middle and we need that.’
MORE : ‘He’s playing volleyball!’ – New replay appears to show Manchester City denied clear penalty
MORE : Josko Gvardiol secures RB Leipzig draw against Manchester City in Champions League last-16 battle
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The likes of Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez were left on the bench.
