Manchester City have been in the worst form they’ve ever experienced under Pep Guardiola in recent weeks.
Their previous seven matches across all competitions have seen City lose six and draw one, conceding 19 goals in the process.
This run of form has been described as a “mini-crisis” by Jamie Carragher, who recently claimed City are now out of the race to win the Premier League title this season, despite there still being over half of the campaign left to play.
Following on from Sunday’s 2-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield, a pundit and former City player has criticised Pep Guardiola for a specific decision he made regarding someone in his squad.
Ex Newcastle player Shay Given during the Premier League match between Everton FC and Newcastle United at Goodison Park on December 07, 2023 in Liv...
Photo by Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images
Shay Given shocked by ‘harsh’ Pep Guardiola decision
When asked on talkSPORT if he was surprised by Guardiola’s decision to drop Ederson and start Stefan Ortega against Liverpool, Shay Given gave this honest response.
He said: “Yeah. I covered the Champions League game [against Feyenoord] last week and he didn’t have a great game if I’m being honest.
MORE MAN CITY STORIES
“The second goal he shouldn’t have conceded at the near post and then the ball over the top was a misjudgement and he read it wrong and the guy nipped in front of him and they scored from that as well.
“For me, it was a collector’s item. Ederson, since he’s joined Manchester City has been a phenomenal goalkeeper, he’s been absolutely brilliant. And I felt it was extremely harsh.
“Ortega’s a great goalkeeper in his own right as well, but we have bad days at the office, we all have poor games, we all make mistakes and I think what Ederson’s done for that football club, I felt it was a bit harsh.
“But then you look at the bigger picture in the sense of how bad a run Man City have been on and Pep’s thinking I need to do something.
“We’re conceding too many goals, maybe a mixup at the goalkeeper at the back, a drastic decision like that. I don’t think it was the right decision as I think Ederson’s done enough.
“But I think it showed against Liverpool how far they’ve fallen off the sort of Richter scale. They were so poor against Liverpool, Liverpool were miles ahead of them.
“We’ve never seen a Pep Guardiola side do this in the past, we’ve never talked about a lack of confidence or belief, with the ball or without the ball, we’ve never seen it before.
“But I suppose Pep has come out fighting. He held his six fingers up to say six Premier League titles and he’s said he’s here to fight to get us out of this position, which is quite refreshing because we always see Pep at the top of the league with his cigar on, now we’ll see Pep in a different light.
“Can he turn this ship around and can he get back up to the top of the league?”
Guardiola shares how Ederson reacted to Liverpool snub
In his press conference ahead of City’s Premier League match against Nottingham Forest, the Catalan was asked how Ederson reacted to being benched against Liverpool.
Guardiola then said that the Brazilian had a “really good” reaction before saying this about the current goalkeeping situation between Ederson and Ortega.
He said: “Eddie is number one and Stefan is number two but maybe Stefan continues, we will see tomorrow, in the next days.”
Premier League – 2024/25 Appearances Shots on Target Faced Saves Save Percentage
Ederson 12 43 27 62.8%
Stefan Ortega 1 7 5 85.7%
Given the poor run of form City have been on recently, it’s understandable why Guardiola chose to switch things up on Sunday by putting Ortega in for Ederson in an effort to refresh his side somewhat.
However, with two goals conceded at Anfield, it’s clear that a change of personnel in goal isn’t the main answer for the Blues in terms of turning their form around and getting their season back on track.
With that in mind, Guardiola’s recent comments do make it interesting to see which of City’s goalkeepers will be in the starting XI for tonight’s match against Forest and Saturday’s away trip to Crystal Palace.
Related Posts