Pep Guardiola's Man City penalty-taker stance shows new attitude for run-in

A lot can change over the course of the season.

Who would have thought back in sunny August that nine months later Manchester City would no longer be playing with traditional full-backs after having two of the best in the league? That Arsenal would be gunning for the title? That Joao Cancelo would leave for Bayern Munich? That Nathan Ake would be one of the first names on the team sheet or that 18-year-old Rico Lewis would become a fully-fledged member of the squad?

City have probably changed more throughout the last year than any of the previous six since Pep Guardiola took over. Erling Haaland's introduction has been the catalyst and the Blues boss now implements a whole new, better-than-ever system. It's no surprise then that opinions and stances on certain matters can change as well.

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For Guardiola, he has made a near-complete 180 on the matter of his penalty takers. For a manager who is so analytical and hyper-detailed in every aspect of the game, penalties were the one exception to the rule. Despite them being so important, Guardiola seemed not to give them much consideration and had a very laissez-faire attitude as to who got to take them.

This is even more surprising given how unreliable City have been from the spot during his reign. After Riyad Mahrez missed his second spot kick in a row when he failed to convert against Borussia Dortmund in October, City had missed 25 of the 80 penalties awarded to them while Guardiola has been in charge.

That was the worst record of any Premier League team during that time and a conversion rate of 68.75 per cent was dramatically below the usual 85 per cent chance of scoring from the spot. Guardiola