Manchester City picked up their first win since October during Wednesday night’s 3-0 victory over Nottingham Forest.
Having gone through the entirety of November without winning a game in any competition, City tasted victory again with their midweek triumph against Nuno Espirito Santo’s side.
Goals from Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku helped the Manchester club secure their much-needed victory at the Etihad Stadium.
Following this victory, Pep Guardiola found himself on the end of some praise by a pundit and former Premier League player for how he approached the match against Forest in terms of his team selection.
Josep 'Pep' Guardiola, manager of Manchester City, during the Premier League match between Manchester City FC and Nottingham Forest FC at Etihad St...
Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images
Paul Merson hails Pep Guardiola for team selection in Forest win
Speaking live on the Sky Sports News TV channel, Paul Merson gave this verdict on City’s win over Forest and how Guardiola set his side up on this occasion.
He said: “Massive. No one likes losing football matches. All of sudden you get into a rut and it’s just happened with one of the greatest teams to ever play football. They went on a run, but they’ve broken it.
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“I’m a great believer in Pep Guardiola, I think he’s one of the greatest managers of all time. But I always think when I was manager, and I was a manager of a much, much lesser standard, but someone told me one day, whenever your team is struggling, get your best players on the pitch.
“Even if they’re not playing the best or they’re struggling with a bit of form, get your best players on the pitch. And for me, he did that. He got Kevin De Bruyne on the pitch, he’s their best player when Rodri ain’t playing, he makes things happen.
“He went back to Jack Grealish. Last year, the year before, Jack Grealish played in all of the big matches for Pep Guardiola. And last night he’s done that.
“He said I’ve got to get my best players on the pitch, the players I can rely on, the players I’ve relied on for the last few years and he put the players on the pitch.”
It was a perfect night for City
With Jamie Carragher saying City had a “mini-crisis” over the past few weeks, this win over the Midlands club certainly put an end to that.
City had 67% possession on Wednesday night, racking up 17 shots at goal in the process, seven of which were on target.
Even though Forest had three of their 12 shots be on target, City managed to do what they had only done twice in their previous 13 league games before Wednesday – keep a clean sheet.
This, therefore shows how beneficial it was for Guardiola to pick the best players he had available, as Merson mentioned.
Taking all of that on board, it’s safe to say that in terms of the performance and the result, were exactly what everyone at City needed after such a dismal run of form in the weeks leading up to this midweek match.
Therefore, this is what Guardiola and the City fans will want to see from their side on a consistent basis across their upcoming group of domestic and European fixtures over the remainder of the month heading into 2025.
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