inability to fit into his system at Manchester City
after spluttering to a goalless draw against
Manchester United.
United held on at the Etihad Stadium, having just
one shot on target and 31 per cent possession,
with City spurning several chances to strike a blow
to their neighbours' hopes of finishing in the
Premier League's top four.
Guardiola selected Pablo Zabaleta and Aleksandar
Kolarov, 32 and 31 years old respectively, at full-
back, with Bacary Sagna, 34, and Gael Clichy, 31,
unused on the bench.
The Catalan coach has deployed the likes of Dani
Alves, David Alaba and Philipp Lahm as key
attacking players from full-back in the past, with
Jesus Navas' recent conversion from winger to
defender hinting at Guardiola's exasperation with
his options in that area of the pitch.
But that was laid clear after Thursday's stalemate.
"I don't like too much to go to the forwards today
in attack, I like to attack in other ways," Guardiola
told Sky Sports.
"They are waiting for your mistake to punish you.
They can play and have a lot quality but
they defend so compact and wait to punish you
behind your full-back, and we don't have full-
backs to go up and down, up and down, because
all of them are 33, 34 years old, so I adapt with the
quality of players.
"Last games we played with Jesus and we attack a
lot with the full-back, but Pablo, Sagna, Kolarov
and Clichy - all of them they are more than 33
years old and they don't have the legs to go up and
down. That's why I prefer they play in other
positions."
Gabriel Jesus made his return from a broken
metatarsal as a second-half substitute and looked
to have continued a glittering start to his City
career with a stoppage-time goal, but he was
adjudged offside from Sergio Aguero's cross.
Nevertheless, the 19-year-old's impact off the
bench left Guardiola wondering what might have
been had he arrived at the start of the season and
not been sidelined by injury.
"Always I will think what would have happened if
Gabriel Jesus would have been with us all the
season," said Guardiola.
"We didn't buy another striker because he could
not come before January, so we missed four or five
months without him. His impact was amazing. I'm
pretty sure with these kind of chances that we had
things would be a little bit different, but it is what it
is."
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