Pep Guardiola could foresee Julian Alvarez's role in Manchester City's win at Crystal Palace well before the Argentine was introduced alongside matchwinner Erling Haaland.
City were on top at Palace throughout, but couldn't find a goal and Haaland was guilty of spurning a glorious chance against a resolute defence. Alvarez replaced Phil Foden just before the hour mark, and immediately played up alongside Haaland as City changed their shape to accommodate the striker.
Alvarez almost scored within a minute or two of his introduction, and the new system sparked City's improvement that would lead to their goal - a Haaland penalty after smart work from Ilkay Gundogan to win a short corner and tempt a foul.
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But it was Alvarez who earned praise from Guardiola at full time, with the manager revealing he plotted the game-changing substitution after just half-an-hour at Selhurst Park.
"Julian in Bournemouth scored twice. Teams defend deep against Haaland, he helps to Haaland to come more spaces and create," Guardiola told Sky Sports.
"Julian is so important and we need him in these games. In the first half after 30 minutes I said to my coaches Julian is coming on immediately in the second half. We needed him in the middle and he had a chance immediately. Today we found it, an intelligent action. Gundo is an exceptional player and got the penalty and Haaland did the rest."
Guardiola also revealed his halftime message that supported the second-half performance, telling his players to remain calm as Palace would try and frustrate them.
He explained: "They have weapons. [Wilfried] Zaha is there, [Michael] Olise, [Eberechi] Eze, they are incredible strikers and they have incredible threat. They have composure, great attacking players. It is a question of patience.
"It's not easy, we spoke at half time, don't lose control. Stay there, keep the rhythm, they will waste time. But don't lose the head. The back four everyone in the middle, upfront, were brilliant.
"Everything pleased me, we missed the counter-attack a bit. It is not easy, they defend six players in the box, winning duels. They were close to Jack, to Phil, Gundo always has a man on him, Bernardo a man on him and Haaland had two men marking him, it was a question of patience. It's not easy."
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