Norwich City 3-2 Manchester City: 5 Men who were poor for Pep Guardiola

#4 Ilkay Gundogan

Ilkay Gundogan failed to impress from midfield

With Kevin De Bruyne on the bench as a precaution for the midweek Champions League game, Pep Guardiola opted to bring in Ilkay Gundogan into the team. The German was tasked with helping City break open the Norwich defence from deep, but Gundogan hardly had any contributions to the game. He failed to provide his forward players with regular influxes of passes and could not penetrate the opposition defence. The German also failed to stop Norwich City when they broke away on the counter and was overrun in the middle.

As the game went on, it was clear that Norwich had the ability to soak City’s pressure. Gundogan’s inability to control the game meant that City lacked the depth in their attack that was required open up a defence that preferred to sit deep.

The German was ultimately replaced in the 57th minute by Kevin de Bruyne, whose arrival immediately sparked life into the City team.