‘We need a player who keeps the ball!’ 🗣️ ‘After (he went off) we did it better…’- Pep Guardiola defends early Kevin De Bruyne substitution after touchline spat with Man City midfielder in Liverpool draw
The reason behind Kevin De Bruyne’s substitution during Manchester City’s March 10 match against Liverpool has now been revealed by Pep Guardiola.
For the final Premier League match between Guardiola and Klopp, the reigning champions headed to Anfield. The legendary pairing of Erling Haaland and De Bruyne up front was how the Spanish tactician got things started.
The 23rd minute saw the Citizens grab the lead thanks to the Belgian’s clever play. As the entire Liverpool team waited for the midfield player to hoist up the corner, he found John Stones on the near post, who turned it in.
In the fiftyth minute, a careless backpass from Nathan Ake caused Ederson to foul Darwin Nunez, wiping out the lead. From the start, Alexis Mac Allister made no mistakes.
In the 69th minute, with the game evenly balanced, Guardiola took a surprising decision to substitute Mateo Kovacic for De Bruyne.
The reason behind Guardiola’s withdrawal of De Bruyne
The 17-year-old from City was not happy with the choice and walked past his manager while yelling at him. Replays reveal Guardiola approaching De Bruyne on the bench to give an explanation for his choice.
After the game, the former Barcelona manager insisted that the decision to bench his star player was necessary as City fought to regain control and expressed no remorse about it.
“That makes me delighted to see! It’s excellent if he’s upset, in my opinion. Now he’s content. I was aware that we were not keeping the ball. After he left, we improved upon it. As quoted by the Premier League website, “Once we had Mateo [Kovacic], we could make extra passes when he came on.”
As a result, Arsenal and Liverpool currently share the top spot in the Premier League standings with 64 points each. With just one point separating the two teams, Arsenal leads Manchester City by a significant margin.
When the month ends, Mikel Arteta’s team visits the Etihad Stadium.
Sports Brief has also revealed that Liverpool was not awarded a late penalty against Manchester City at the same time.
Although it looked like Jeremy Doku had put his foot on Mac Allister’s chest, referee Michael Oliver dismissed the appeal.
Deep into stoppage time, there was a challenge that might have resulted in a second penalty for Liverpool.
