Pep Guardiola may have made Sir Alex Ferguson Man Utd mistake

Man City boss Guardiola assesses Man Utd's season so far

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Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola may be making the same mistake as Manchester United legend Sir Alex Ferguson by failing to admit his errors at the time according to Gary Neville. The Sky Blues have been left without a clear first-choice left-back following the departure of Joao Cancelo – something the former England international believes needs to be addressed. 

Ferguson is widely considered to be the greatest football manager of all time after a hugely successful spell in the Old Trafford hot seat. The Scotsman won a ridiculous 49 trophies during his 27-year spell as Red Devils’ boss in a managerial stint unrivalled for its success and longevity. 

However, the 81-year-old was by no means perfect and did make the odd mistake during his career. Guardiola is now regarded by many to be the best manager in world football but former United star Neville believes he could be making the same mistakes as his old boss. 

The Sky Sports pundit has suggested Ferguson was often reluctant to admit when he made an error – something Guardiola is repeating by his continued use of Bernardo Silva as a left-back. 

“You can almost get away with a centre-back or a midfielder playing at right-back – for some reason, you can very rarely get away with that at left-back,” Neville told the Overlap in focus, in partnership with Sky Bet. “I feel that Manchester City never tied that position down.

“We’re all worried about questioning Pep Guardiola – looking back now, Sir Alex Ferguson accepted a lot of his mistakes, but only after he retired. He said selling Jaap Stam was a big mistake and cost us for two years. I think we are living in Pep’s ‘mistake’ here, where Manchester City haven’t got a left back and they’re playing Bernardo Silva there in the odd game. That is a mistake that he has obviously contributed towards.

“I feel a bit embarrassed criticising Jürgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola, but even Sir Alex, who won 13 titles and got 99.9% of his decision-making right – he came out after he retired and spoke about the Barcelona final at Wembley in the Champions League (in 2011) and other moments where he knows he got it wrong.

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“We should be quite confident in saying that what we’re watching at the moment is a team that is lacking balance on the left-hand side, and that’s why they’re not getting to their standards.

“They’re playing Nathan Aké there, he struggles on the ball at times. Bernardo Silva has played there as well, but he’s a massive vulnerability. The goal they conceded against Nottingham Forest was because of having Bernardo Silva in that position.”

With Cancelo now at Bayern Munich for the rest of the season, City’s options in the position are limited. Aymeric Laporte, Rico Lewis and Sergio Gomez are all capable of playing on the left-hand side but appear to be unfancied by Guardiola. 

It remains to be seen who he will settle on as his left-back in the long-term but it looks set to be a major test of his managerial ability. 

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