Pep Guardiola thanked Joao Cancelo and Rodri for playing out of position for Manchester City in the first half at Chelsea and admitted he had expected a different game at Stamford Bridge.
City lined up with a back three in possession and a back four out of possession in the first half, with Rodri sometimes dropping in at centre-back and Cancelo lining up on the right wing.
But the tactical changes didn't work and Guardiola revealed he knew after 20 minutes he was going to have to make changes at half-time, with Rico Lewis and Manuel Akanji coming on for Cancelo and Kyle Walker.
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Guardiola was unhappy with several aspects of the first-half performance against Chelsea, but admitted he had got it wrong with his decision to field Cancelo and Rodri in different positions.
"Since the World Cup the games against Liverpool, Leeds and Everton were magnificent. Today the first half was not good," he said.
"My decision to put two players in not his position and I say thank you to Joao and Rodri to make the effort to play in the positions. I imagine another type of game, especially if they decide to play with five in the back as sometimes happens we could use Kyle and Joao as full-backs.
“It was not good first half, it was a bit sloppy, we couldn’t contract with the wingers or the attacking midfielders, we didn’t create much, our pressing was so poor, we were not well organised."
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