Tuesday's defeat by Leverkusen was the first time City had lost a Champions League home game in the group stage or the League Phase of the competition since they were beaten 2-1 by Lyon in September 2018. The coach only kept Nico Gonzalez in the starting line-up from the previous match against Newcastle, benching top scorer Erling Haaland plus his most experienced players such as Phil Foden, Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva. Immediately after the game he admitted that he had made too many changes.
"I take responsibility but I saw them and I like everyone to be involved," he said at the time. "When you are a football player and don’t play for five, six, seven games it’s tough but maybe it was too much. Always I like to be too nice and involve everyone because I have the feeling after the international break there are games every three or four days and there is no human being who can sustain that. We were at home, in a good position in the Champions League and I thought 'let’s try and let’s have weapons on the bench'. It didn’t work and we have to accept it."
However, speaking on Friday ahead of City's next game against Leeds United, the coach decided to criticise his players for the way they approached the game.