What Went Wrong For Manchester City At Spurs

Pep Guardiola’s decision to pick Fabian Delph at Left Back proved to be a catastrophic error.

Though the team was certainly short on options, Pep Guardiola’s decision to pick Fabian Delph at left back was an absolute shocker.

Delph had been train wreck at left back in his previous handful of games for the club.

In his last league start in December, Delph made a crucial mistake in City’s loss at Leicester that contributed to their opening goal. Delph lost his concentration on a cross, and was caught out of position. Mark Albrighton beat him to the ball and got an unmarked header that resulted in a goal.

Then, minutes after his initial mistake, Delph compounded that error by picking up a reckless red card that was similar to the one he got himself sent off for in City’s shock defeat at Wigan in the FA Cup last season. City would go on to lose that game.

After spending months on the sideline with an apparent injury, Delph got another chance to start at left back in Manchester City’s FA Cup Quarterfinal game at Swansea just before the international break.

Like Leicester, Delph made a horrible mistake that led to a goal. He took a Swansea player down with a clumsy challenge just inside the penalty box early in the game. The penalty which resulted from that mistake led to a goal. Only a late comeback was able to rescue City from another humiliating loss to a Championship side in the FA Cup.

Four of Manchester City’s five losses this season coming into Tuesday night had come with Delph starting at left back. In all of those games, teams had bombed down the left side of the defense to exploit Delph’s awful reactions, poor pace, and positioning. He was always caught playing too narrow, something that allowed quicker players to get into acres space behind the City back line. The result, was the opposition getting several clear cut chances to score that they weren’t getting when others started there.

It was no surprise, then, that Delph was the man most responsible for the goal that Spurs scored Tuesday night.

Heung-Min Son blew by Delph for pace in the attack that led to the goal. Delph barely recovered to get in front of him, only to turn off for a brief second when he believed Son had dribbled the ball out of bounds. Son took the space afforded to him by this brief moment of hesitation, and smashed the ball past Ederson for the opening goal.

Delph may have been a revelation last season when City were in need of an emergency option at left back. However, his past several performances have shown how out his depth he is at that position. Whatever confidence he had in his game last year is gone, and teams are eating him alive to get easy chances.

Let’s hope Delph has played his final game at left back for Manchester City

That leads us to the final, and most culpable person of all for City’s loss on Tuesday night.