Manchester City: Why Yaya Toure Champions League omission is the right call
Manchester City caused a stir by omitting Yaya Toure from their Champions League squad list. A move which was the right decision in the end.
Yaya Toure has been a big player for Manchester City ever since he first signed for the club in 2010. He’s one of the club’s greatest ever players. But Pep Guardiola made the right call in leaving the veteran out of City’s Champions League squad.
For all Toure has done in his City career, he isn’t that same player anymore. For the last two years the Ivorian has looked disinterested and been lackadaisical in his play. Guardiola doesn’t do lackadaisical.
It’s a surprise Toure is even still at the Etihad after the window shut. Did Guardiola want him to stay? Did Toure refuse to leave? Were there no takers that peaked the interest of the 33-year-old?
Whatever the situation, Toure remains a City a player. Which gave Guardiola as decision to make with just 17 foreign spots on the Champions League roster and 18 in his squad. One had to go.
In midfield, Guardiola also has Ilkay Gundogan, Fernandinho, Fernando and Fabian Delph as conventional central midfielders in his squad. The reason Toure is out of the squad may not be one of those, however.
In Guardiola’s first three Premier League games, David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne have occupied midfield roles with Fernandinho sitting deeper to cover. With Gundogan nearing full fitness, the German will likely take over from Fernandinho at the base of the trio.
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Which frees up Fernandinho to either be a backup on the bench or replace Silva or De Bruyne when Guardiola wants a more sturdy midfield lineup. Added to the fact that Delph was very good in pre-season and Fernando had a good second half to last season, where would Toure fit in?
There’s only so many foreign spaces available on the squad list Would it be wise to drag Toure around Europe as the fifth or sixth choice midfielder? Good for morale?
The Ivorian will likely be rotated into the team for Premier League games after Champions League fixtures in midweek anyway. He’s not disappearing to Mars.
The truth is, Yaya Toure just doesn’t have the work rate and energy to play Guardiola’s demanding system. Maybe he never did? Perhaps Guardiola has a similar opinion of Toure now as he had six years ago when he sold the midfielder to City?
Guardiola is obsessed with possession as everybody knows, and Toure is ideal for that side of the game. He can pass the ball blind fold and with one leg wrapped round his waist. But Guardiola is equally as obsessed with recovering the possession. Giving the opposition no time to hold the ball.
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Everybody has to press together and if one doesn’t do it then it breaks the chain and gives the opposition an out ball. That one will be Toure. He can’t keep up the intensity at this point. Maybe in the Premier League against teams lower down the table, but not against Barcelona and Borussia Monchengladbach in Europe.
For those games, Guardiola needs the absolute best players he has for his style of play. And unfortunately, that’s just not Yaya Toure at this point.