Why 'scarred' Pep Guardiola took huge Champions League gamble as Man City theories emerge

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Pep Guardiola made 10 changes for Manchester City's Champions League tie with Bayer Leverkusen in midweek and watched the Blues lose 2-0.

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola chastised his players for not being brave enough in the midweek defeat to Bayer Leverkusen as the debate over his team selection rumbles on. Guardiola made 10 changes for the Champions League tie and the rotation backfired as Leverkusen won 2-0 at the Etihad to inflict on City a first home group stage defeat in seven years.

Guardiola had played the same XI for the three previous games and while there was a need to rotate given the upcoming schedule and City's decent position in Europe, the decision to retain only Nico Gonzalez for the visit of an in-form Bundesliga side prompted consternation on Tuesday night.

And those fears proved well-founded as the Blues struggled to impose themselves on the contest and, even after a triple half-time change and the introduction of Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki in the final half hour, struggled to find a response. So why did Guardiola take such a chance? It was one of the hot topics on the latest edition of the Talking City podcast with City writers Simon Bajkowski and Tyrone Marshall.

"I've got three theories," said Bajkowski, speaking on the Talking City podcast. "The first is that it was a message to his starters from Newcastle saying 'look, I wasn't entirely happy with that performance, it has got to be better and here is a chance for 10 people to show you why you won't necessarily be in my team every week'. None of them took it.

"Secondly, I think Pep was the master of the six game Champions League phase, he knew what to do when, which was invariably pick your strongest team for the first four, maybe the fifth, rest everyone for the sixth. It is still in its infancy this new phase, and I think he thought against a Bayer Leverkusen team missing a load of players, even if they got a point, even if they lost, 16 points got you top eight last season.

"So even if they lose to Real, if they beat Bodo and Galatasaray, which they should, then you will get to 16 points. So maybe come the end of January we are talking that Leverkusen didn't actually matter.

"The third one is I think he is still quite scarred from last season with the injuries and fatigue and knows they have a full on run coming up with three Premier League games coming up in 10 days and five in whatever with Real and Palace.

"And I think he thought he could take an opportunity to rest players. But it massively backfired and now we are not talking about a City team who can challenge Arsenal, we are talking about a City team who are inconsistent and are they good enough?"