I saw three Man City players rise to Pep Guardiola challenge - and one who didn't
Pep Guardiola is already planning his team for the Club World Cup, nine months and a full season away in June.
"We spoke - we are going to play at the end of the season Club World Cup, no holidays then start the Premier League again," he said before Manchester City took on Slovan Bratislava. "We need everyone."
Guardiola had calculated the 12-month-long season before this one had even begun, and has cautioned against the hectic schedule his City side will face this term. To combat that, his first objective is to keep his regulars rotated and as fit as possible. To achieve that he needs a competitive and willing group of fringe players to step up when they need to.
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So the chance to make six changes against Slovan was one he wasn't going to pass up. Some made sense - a chance to give Stefan Ortega a game and Ederson a rest, or allow Phil Foden and Ilkay Gundogan another 90 minutes to play themselves into form.
Others had more riding on it. Matheus Nunes is in a strange position in that he's not really a holding midfielder (despite his insistence that he is), and not really a number eight or number 10. Wherever he plays, he needs someone more solid next to him. Guardiola's quote about the Club World Cup was in direct response to a question about Nunes, but the answer applied to the full squad.
"We need him. His pace is unique, his runs and for the way they defend maybe we can create the space in that position. His shot, can adapt," the boss said, before bringing up the Club World Cup. "The players don't believe it," he continued. "Always there are players who play more minutes than the other ones but in the end modern football, with teams playing a lot of competitions, everybody has to be ready, otherwise is impossible. They have to compete with each other and be ready for every situation."
So how did Nunes do?
As ever there were some nice touches, some blocked crosses from the right positions, and a couple of crosses that got through but were cut out. One chipped cross to Erling Haaland was perfect but the striker headed over.
But there was an equal number of misplaced passes, promising moves broken down, and wrong decisions from a player keen to make a point. Last week in the Carabao Cup, he scored a good goal but struggled to fully impress his manager. This was a second chance in as many weeks, once again leaving as many questions as answers, especially compared to players like Gundogan and Foden who Guardiola has publicly declared need to be better after fitness-affected starts to the season.
Gundogan, who the manager said played the worse he's seen him in a City shirt at Newcastle, was quietly effective and got a first goal since returning. Foden's finish a few minutes later capped an impressive performance that included an assist and much more right decisions that will please Guardiola.
Even James McAtee, who may have hoped to start, got a first senior goal for City and could have had another in an all-action cameo. Guardiola said he hoped the goal would give him belief that he belongs in the first team squad.
"Of course, he will not be a regular player this season but in a lot of games he will help us and when he plays like he did today I can always count on him," said Guardiola of McAtee.
Nunes certainly doesn't have that belief yet, nor the confidence of his manager, 13 months on from moving to Manchester. Last week Guardiola placed him in the category of new player still getting to grips with his system, and that felt applicable again in Bratislava. He may have hoped to have made more of an impact in response to Guardiola's public challenge pre-match.