Needless Omar Marmoush gesture sums up worrying Man City setback

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Manchester City threw away their recent momentum with a second defeat in four days that leaves the pressure on the squad for the next game

Omar Marmoush threw his hands up to the crowd, urging more noise from the South Stand as Manchester City looked to equalise against Leverkusen. Marmoush is good at that, calling for a response from supporters to help the team. Unfortunately for everyone, it has been a while since the City forward managed to get a reaction out of fans for anything involving a football.

One goal, in the League Cup at Swansea, is all Marmoush can boast in this injury-hit season and against Leverkusen he looked toothless again - although it would be wrong to single out his performance in a much-changed City team that got exactly what they deserved in a dismal 2-0 defeat.

Pep Guardiola has won as much as he has at the Etihad by going as strong as he can in every competition, and has given particular importance to the Champions League given the prestige that he holds it in. He may argue that making 10 changes from the team that started at Newcastle on Saturday upheld that principle, but he won't find many who agree with him.

It looked like a B team that were sent out to play Leverkusen, with Marmoush one of six starters who hadn't started any of the previous five games in the Premier League and Champions League. It wasn't a team that were in any kind of rhythm or form, and it showed.

If this was a chance for certain players to prove to Guardiola he had been wrong not to include them previously, it was missed. If this was an opportunity for Guardiola to showcase the stronger squad he has this season, it backfired horribly.

This should have been a game for City to consolidate the promise they have shown in the first half of this Champions League campaign, with three points all but guaranteeing a place in at least the play-off rounds and allowing them to head to the Bernabeu next month with the confidence of an unbeaten streak and a points advantage over Real. Instead, they blew the confidence they have built all season and exposed how weak they are when their best players are rested.

Jeremy Doku, Phil Foden and Nico O'Reilly all came on at half-time to try and change the game. Within 10 minutes, Patrik Schick had added a second for Leverkusen.

Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki were then summoned with half an hour to play. The performance slightly improved but the scoreline and result did not. As matches go, this had plenty of similarities to the awful League Cup defeat to Southampton in 2023 that saw a furious Guardiola afterwards threaten to replace the team with academy players.

Of course, a few months later they were celebrating the Treble and so it would be silly to draw too many conclusions from this one defeat. They should still qualify from their Champions League initial phase and there is a belief that they can challenge for the biggest prizes.

The frustration is that this defeat felt self-inflicted, playing a team that always looked on paper like it would struggle and being unable to salvage the damage. Guardiola will have to deal with the consequences of consecutive defeats for the first time since August as he prepares for a game on Saturday where they simply cannot afford to drop further behind Arsenal.

Supporters will be back inside the Etihad this weekend for the visit of Leeds, and City players may want to focus on giving them something to cheer about instead of concerning themselves with what they are getting back.