Pep Guardiola indicated before Manchester City faced Liverpool that he would have preferred not to play at least four of his starting XI. It was hardly a confidence-boosting admission of the side he had just named.
Guardiola picked Rodri, Aymeric Laporte, Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji, all with just four days of training under their belts since returning from their World Cup last-16 exits. Going off his pre-match interview, he would have preferred not to play them.
Yet a day before in his pre-match press conference, Guardiola sounded pleasantly surprised that his World Cup contingent had returned to City in better shape than he had expected. So what changed?
