Manchester City crashed out of the Carabao Cup at the last-16 stage on Wednesday evening as they fell to a 2-1 defeat at Tottenham in what was their first loss of the 2024/25 campaign.
Pep Guardiola made seven changes to his side that beat Southampton at the weekend, including a last-minute switch when Manuel Akanji was pulled from the starting XI after the warm-up as the Premier League champions’ dismal injury luck continued.
Tottenham took control of the tie early, with Timo Werner scoring after just five minutes before Pape Sarr doubled their advantage midway through the first half. Matheus Nunes pulled a goal back in first-half stoppage time to fire Guardiola’s men back into the tie.
But the equaliser didn’t come after the break and perhaps the most telling aspect of the evening was what Guardiola chose to do with his substitutes.
Pep Guardiola gives Erling Haaland fitness update
Guardiola introduced five players to the game off the bench, but this did not include Erling Haaland, who barely moved from his seat all night and never looked like coming on.
“The plan was before that he wouldn’t play” Guardiola said following Man City’s defeat. “The game against Southampton was so demanding and it’s going to come and I didn’t want to take risks with him today in this competition.
“The plan was not to play today. He plays a lot of minutes, we need him for this week. We have not much recovery and not much players. I didn’t want to waste energy for him.”
As the clock ran down Guardiola turned to youth, bringing on academy products Jacob Wright and Jahmai Simpson-Pusey for the closing stages.
Why Pep Guardiola made the right call
No football manager ever wants to lose a match and while Guardiola had confidence in the players who were on the pitch, we would no doubt have seen Haaland in action if this was a crunch Premier League or Champions League tie.
But with the Man City squad decimated by injuries, risking Haaland for the competition which ranks fourth on City’s list of priorities this season made no sense. Had the Norwegian picked up even the slightest injury niggle it could have had a huge impact on what looks to be a testing week for the club.
Saturday 2nd November
Premier League
B’mouth
15:00
Man City
Saturday 9th November
Premier League
Brighton
17:30
Man City
Saturday 23rd November
Premier League
Man City
17:30
Tottenham
City are back in action on Saturday afternoon when they make the trip down to the south coast to face Bournemouth in the Premier League. The squad then have to fly out to Portugal to face Sporting in the Champions League on Tuesday night, with a third consecutive long away day following four days later when they visit Brighton in the Saturday tea-time kick-off.
City currently have eight players on their injury list, while Guardiola also hinted that several others, including Haaland, are being stretched to their limits ahead of a three-match game week and international break, meaning the Spurs tie turned into something of a sacrificial lamb.
