One substitution Pep Guardiola made against Forest had a detrimental affect on his team | OneFootball

In the 62nd minute of Manchester City’s 1-nil defeat to Nottingham Forest Pep Guardiola made two substitutions. Rico Lewis replaced Matheus Nunes. The other substitution Guardiola made was replacing Nico with Mateo Kovacic. Pep Guardiola’s substitutions made sense as Nunes and Nico were both on a yellow card. The substitution of Nico particularly made sense as he just committed a foul before he was replaced.

But the absence of Nico did cost Manchester City during the closing stages of yesterday’s match. In his absence, Nottingham Forest was able to create their best chances of the game. Their first good chance came in the 67th minute but Ederson denied Callum Hudson-Odoi with a superb save. But in the 83rd minute, City wouldn’t be so lucky as Hudson-Odoi would score a late winner to pick up a vital three points for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side.

As mentioned above, there was a valid reason for Pep Guardiola to replace Nico. You did have the sense that he was walking a tightrope playing on a yellow card. But the problem was that Mateo Kovacic can’t play in the same manner of Nico. Without Nico on the pitch City’s midfield was too exposed and too open. Nico offers a level of protection and control to City’s play that Kovacic does not. That was on full display for Nottingham Forest’s winner. A simple, but quality, cross-field ball from Morgan Gibbs-White split open City’s defence. From there, Callum Hudson-Odoi did the rest, and Forest scored the goal that settled yesterday’s match.

The problem with Mateo Kovacic playing as a number 6 is he is too loose in his positioning and when he is on the ball. We have seen that all season long as he’s been forced to play a role that doesn’t suit his game. It was on display once again with his positioning during the move that Nottingham Forest won the game with yesterday. He was caught out wide and as a consequence City’s entire defensive structure was stretched. That’s how Gibbs-White could play the ball to play across for Hudson-Odoi and how the Forest winger had the space to prosper yesterday.

One of Pep Guardiola’s substitutions had a detrimental affect on his team yesterday. Although it was an understandable move given the circumstances it was made it did cost Manchester City come the final whistle.