Manchester City Fan View: Guardiola does not have to justify his bench

Manchester City were reminded this weekend of the importance of taking chances in football. The Blues dropped points for only the fourth time this season when they drew 1-1 at Burnley. The draw was a small disappointment after a wonderfully dominant display, but ultimately it might do the team some good.

The Blues were extremely wasteful at Turf Moor. The truth is the game should have been out of sight way before Burnley’s 82nd minute equaliser. Chances came and chances went, and other than Danilo’s first-half super strike, they they were all passed up.

City profligacy

To say City were profligate in front of goal would be an understatement. Some of the football on display by Pep Guardiola’s men was absolutely sensational and Sean Dyche’s side struggled to deal with it. Unfortunately, City simply failed to make it count.

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The most extreme example of a chance wasted came when Raheem Sterling missed an open net. That came in the second half with his side leading 1-0 and, on the balance of play, had he scored the match would have been finished. Instead, from around four yards out and with nobody around to stop him tapping in, Sterling got indecisive about which foot to use and put it inexplicably wide. So often the fulcrum of City’s goalscoring, everybody just expected the net to bulge.

Sterling may have produced the worst miss, but he was not the most wasteful player on the pitch. That award would probably have to go to Ilkay Gündogan. The German international got himself into good positions on several occasions but picked out the wrong pass, or fluffed his lines.

As off-days go, a 1-1 draw at Burnley that maintains a healthy 13 point lead at the top of the league is very acceptable. For the players, the late equaliser will serve as a reminder that they must keep concentration at all times to get the three points they deserve.

The substitutes

Much has been made of the fact that Guardiola only named six substitutes, rather the usual seven that are allowed. He said after the game that, “We do not have any more players,” presumably alluding, in-part, to injuries caused by the recent spate of horror tackles aimed at his team.

This has lead to criticism from many in the press. “Why not just put a youth player on the bench?” has been a common question. Well, that’s easy. First of all, academy graduates Tosin Adarabioyo and Brahim Diaz did make it to the bench. The boss made only one change during the match and the player that came on was 18 year-old Diaz. It doesn’t exactly smack of a manager not willing to give youth a go.

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Given that City’s Under-23’s played on Friday night, Guardiola probably didn’t think it was right to use any of them just half a day later. There’s no point wasting a space on the bench for the sake of it. Yes, it would be good experience for a young player to be around the first team squad on a match day, but, quite frankly, how Guardiola chooses to manage that is hardly open to question from anybody outside the club. His track record of bringing through youth players is exceptional and he does not need to justify himself to anybody if his judgement is that it’s not appropriate to name an additional youngster on the bench.

There is not much to criticise City for this season. The Premier League title has long appeared to be in the bag and they’re going strong in all other competitions; if naming one less substitute than he is allowed to is the most heinous thing Pep has done this season, I’d say that’s an indicator of how well everything is going.