Pep Guardiola suggested he had been "too nice" to his fringe players after the decision to make 10 changes to his team contributed to Manchester City 's surprise 2-0 defeat to Bayer Leverkusen .

City lost a home game in the Champions League group stage or league phase for the first time since 2018 thanks to goals from Alejandro Grimaldo and Patrik Schick .

Guardiola admitted afterward that the changes he made to his team were "too much" and hinted that he should have been ruthless in keeping his squad players on the bench.

"Too many changes," said Guardiola. "Maybe it was too much, seeing the result. I take responsibility but I saw them and I like everyone to be involved, when you are a football player and don't play for five, six, seven games it's tough but maybe it was too muc

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