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The importance of Fernandinho for Manchester City is one of the strangest (and most boring) points of debate in English football. Strange, because a club with its resources should not be so dependent on a player in his thirties and dull because this seems to be the case for a long time.
It also means that Fernandinho must be well used to this role; he surely understands his importance to Pep Guardiola and, more specifically, to the pursuit by the Abu Dhabi Group of his white whale, the Champions League.
What makes his extracurricular activity Tuesday night difficult to rationalize.
First, some mitigation measures: Pep Guardiola clearly asked his players to be physical. Cities have smart tactical fouling in their repertoire, but they are barely known as anarchic members – and why would they be, they need nothing but their abilities.
So Tuesday night created a strange aesthetic. That made sense, as Guardiola's only loss to Tottenham in his first season at White Hart Lane saw his team overflowing and his finesse trampled under the hooves of Pochettino's runners. The Spurs being energized by the opening of their new land and by chance itself, he may have considered this as a sensible countermeasure – perhaps a deterrent.
Maybe, but City has played four times in a row against the Spurs, at home and away (winning three, shooting once), which suggests a strange paranoia .
And this paranoia seemed to infect Fernandinho, whose double elbow on Harry Kane should have drawn a red card. It was a strange incident, which gets worse every time it's shown. Idling makes everything look more serious and, in this case, probably exaggerates what in reality was a relatively weak contact. But the intention was still obvious: the first Brazilian tried to hit Kane in the back of the head by falling and this contact could be considered an accident. But then he abandoned himself by doing a second try with the referee just a few meters away.
It was ugly. Yes, what about this subject? What about, what about it, what about it. I'm sure there are dozens of other grievances, real and imaginary, that have been removed from this game, but they are incidental. Tottenham won anyway. The goal is not to complain about a bad decision or to take more shots against VAR – who really understands the referral system anyway? – But wondering what a red card could have done to City.
They won the League Cup, which everyone has already forgotten. They will probably win the FA Cup too, but they have already done so and this has never been one of the main ambitions of the season. And even if they win the Premier League, it already seems certain that Liverpool historyno matter what will eventually become, will become the main goal.
Fernandinho has indeed jeopardized the progress of City in the only tournament that remains strategic. Needless too. The spurs should not beat them on two legs. Yes, they are strong and competitive, but City operates in a different stratosphere, with two or three players in each position.
All positions except one. Fernandinho is a brilliant footballer. He was probably not celebrated enough for that, but he nearly lost the road on Tuesday night. A road that, for the moment, looks like a clear race for the Coupe de Europe. Real Madrid and Paris Saint Germain have already come out, Barcelona and Bayern Munich are not what they are used to and, for once, the continental stars are aligning for City.
So, with respect to the other teams on their side of the table, all they have to do to reach a first final in their history is not to spoil the next three games. Fernandinho almost did it. A deficit of 1-0 is manageable, City should still pbad, but a red card in the first half could have created an irreversible deficit for them and a critical suspension for him.
And how can he and they not be wise at that? Because of their superiority, City regularly meets teams who try to get around the rules in order to suppress their advantage. It even happened Saturday in Wembley, when the Brighton players went to the ground in pursuit of decisions they were not entitled to.
Brighton obviously thought that they had nothing to lose. City, in this situation, had everything to lose. Putting yourself unnecessarily at the mercy of the referee – looking for a physical superiority over which their football never counted – was oddly self-destructive.
Another point and a theoretical scenario: what will happen if City pbades Spurs next week and builds a decisive lead after, say, an hour – the temptation of a Pochettino player to be blamed could be overwhelming . That's the depth of the problem that Fernandinho created: he avoided the sanctions on Tuesday night, but he also created a raging animosity in a two-legged tie with a quick turnaround and, given his technical superiority, it's a complication that his side can do. without.
Tottenham wanted this tie to be mean; it suits them well. Fernandinho and his manager played in their hands.
Seb Stafford-Bloor
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