Certainly wasn't the intention to lose but I suspect that this might've been the only one of the 3 straight matches against Tottenham Pep was going to play conservatively and risk a narrow loss. I am sure the intention was to win if not at least do no worse than a draw but as he said in the post match he was happy with the play of his team
I also wasn't aware Bernardo got injured before the match, was this common knowledge or a well kept secret? Very surprising, either way this clearly impacted his team selection as well as thinking/planning ahead
For me, it would appear Pep played it conservatively with team selection due to the April fixtures and how tight the margins are. If you consider it objectively, this is the one match in April they could potentially afford to lose and not impact the League title chase or odds for Semifinal qualification with his strongest lineup for the return at the Etihad next week. Seems a calculated risk, maybe even a bit pragmatic for someone like Pep tbh but with all the injuries this season, reasonable?
I'm not sure I agree with this approach, just that there is a logic to it. I think what I fail to understand however are the 89th min subs - make the subs but why wait that late? Surely at 75 minutes it still could've mitigated any fears he might've had for more injuries to key players like KDB & Leroy but that's the only oddity that lingers for me
Not easy to do but you have to give Spurs credit, they did well and both Son & Winks were brilliant. We'll have to see if Pep's roll of the dice pays off in the return but he sounded quite confident that was going to happen in the post match