Manchester City’s manager went through the full range of emotions on a night when reckless defending by his side and Monaco produced a thriller
It is perhaps a measure of how uncomfortable Manchester City still are on the European stage that Pep Guardiola chose life and death imagery in his pre-match assessment. While relaxed insouciance is what the manager generally aims for, he hardly struck that tone when observing Monaco had “killers” in the box in Radamel Falcao and Valère Germain, or noting glumly that critics would “kill” his City side if they did not succeed.
This is almost certainly not the can-do, positive approach City thought they would be getting when employing the former coach of Barcelona and Bayern Munich, although it is possible Guardiola was merely trying to lull his opponents into a false sense of superiority. His team seemed to be doing that on the pitch to an extent as well, passing the ball backwards more than usual, with Willy Caballero and John Stones in particular giving the impression that they did not really want it, although when City took the lead midway through the first half it appeared they knew what they were doing.
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