James Maddison has revealed that Pep Guardiola asked him why Leicester City didn't play like they did in the final 15 minutes for the entire game, following the Foxes' 1-0 defeat to Manchester City.
Kevin De Bruyne's second-half strike proved to be the difference at the King Power Stadium as City moved to the top of the Premier League for the first time since August. The Citizens, who were without Erling Haaland through injury, did enough to earn a narrow win but Leicester made it difficult for them throughout.
The Foxes defended in a deep block and had 11-men behind the ball for the majority of the first-half, which made it hard for City to break them down. Bernardo Silva had the Citizens' best chance of the first 45 minutes, but Danny Ward stood tall to block his effort.
But City eventually took the lead in the 49th minute through De Bruyne, whose terrific 30-yard free-kick found the back of the net. Leicester stayed hard to beat until the final 15 minutes, where they made a double change and threw the kitchen sink at City in an attempt to get something from the game.
Patson Daka and Kelechi Iheanacho both came on to add some more firepower to the Foxes' attack. Although they created some excellent opportunities to score, Leicester were unable to find a way past Ederson and suffered their first defeat in four matches.
After the game, Guardiola bumped into Maddison and had a brief chat with the Leicester midfielder. When asked about what was said, Maddison told BT Sport: "He was asking why we didn't play like we did in the last 15 minutes for the whole game, but you realise it's not as easy as that. A top manager with a top team so it's always going to be tough."
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Brendan Rodgers was also asked in his post-match press conference if he should have released the handbrake sooner, with Leicester much-improved in the attacking third from the 75th minute. But the Foxes boss refuted that idea.
He said: "No, not at all. It’s not taking the handbrake off, it’s managing the game. They are the best team in the world. If you give them too much space, they punish you. I’m sure you’ve seen them enough to know they do that, and there are better teams than us [who have set up that way] as well.
"You have to use logic and common sense when you’re playing against them. We managed and restricted them. When it was the moment to change the game, we did that, and the players carried it out really well.
"We talk about the game being one of inches. A couple of inches and Kevin’s shot hits the outside of the post, and a couple of inches and Youri’s goes in. That’s the difference."
