Why Guardiola's deciding whether to stick or twist this summer
Yaya Toure worked the midfield Sunday with the delay and disorientation of a St Patrick's Day reveller playing whack-a-mole in a late-night arcade. Already carrying a yellow card from a careless challenge on Emre Can and fortunate not to concede a penalty after hauling down Georginio Wijnaldum in the box, the 33-year-old Ivorian was late to every diminutive Liverpool player popping up in the middle and, as a red card waiting to happen, was substituted on 65 minutes.
Manchester City had enough chances to scrape a win in Sunday's 1-1 draw, but in a fascinating and largely even tactical slugfest between Premier League heavyweights, it was again older players that held back Pep Guardiola's designs.
In fact, the match, as well as City's Champions League elimination, perfectly illustrates the difficult decision facing Guardiola between justifying the huge youth investment at the club and picking up silverware to promptly warrant his practices.
One of the standout players of the weekend's tie was John Stones, 22. The Barnsley product still has small-minded tabloids baying for his blood - he plays more like what the Brazilians call a fourth defender or the Italians call a libero, and isn't the thick-skulled, ball-hoofing warrior-cum-defender England is accustomed to - but his recent, significant progress has gone undetected. He strode forward with confidence in Monaco while the rest of his teammates cowered, and in Liverpool's visit he made three timely interceptions and was his team's most reliable passer. He also made more touches than David Silva and anyone in red.
Unfortunately, in that harrowing Champions League last-16 elimination in the principality last Wednesday, Stones was supported in the deepest six by 35-year-old Willy Caballero, 34-year-old Sagna, and 31-year-olds Aleksandar Kolarov, Gael Clichy, and Fernandinho. Against opponents as athletic as Fabinho and Benjamin Mendy, experience and poise gives way to enervation and erraticism.
And Clichy was at fault Sunday when he desperately scrambled back after a slip to clumsily barge Roberto Firmino. Whether he won the ball or not, the height of his boot and the lack of grace in how he bumped the forward were deserving of the awarded penalty.
The senior members of the attack haven't been spared examination either. Nolito's questionable discipline early in the season has resulted in just two league appearances off the bench in 2017, and most notably, Sergio Aguero was supposedly surplus to requirements when Gabriel Jesus spearheaded an attack that had more zip than Guardiola's snazzy jacket.
These struggles by the senior players have led the papers to speculate there will be an overhaul at Eastlands this summer. Suggesting 18 first-teamers will be shown the exit is outlandish, however, particularly when the chief aim at City is still a few years away from being realised.
The goal upon the building of the Etihad Campus was to have a predominantly homegrown starting XI by 2027. Judging from City's 6-0 aggregate lead over Stoke going into April 3's FA Youth Cup semi-final second leg, and the noises coming from the club, that aim could be accomplished sooner.
"I'm not someone who gets carried away, but I have never seen anything like the talent we have at this academy," said City Football Academy head Jason Wilcox in October.
"We have got kids here who are at a level that is just mind-blowing. It makes me hope that I am working here for the next 10 years. We want Pep Guardiola to be spoilt for choice - and we are getting there."
But the under-18s threatening to challenge Chelsea's FA Youth Cup supremacy are not quite ready for Premier League football, and the increased interest in scouting South America's fledglings - Gabriel Jesus has been joined by Marlos Moreno and Yangel Herrera in the City Football Group in his first season, and the Press Association reports a sister club is being sighted in the continent - won't bear fruit instantly.
That is the conundrum facing Guardiola. Does he keep his older ranks in for a year or two, or does he begin to present the youngsters now? Borussia Dortmund has purchased and trusted young this season, presumably to great benefit in years to come, but the philosophy is detrimental to the side's current performance. Monaco will find a tougher job in retaining its youthful stars this summer, but has done something similar.
The early evidence of City's academy work - ideals that are very much influenced by Barcelona's La Masia system - and smart scouting is expected to become more apparent next season. Enes Unal is starring on loan at FC Twente, as is Manu Garcia at NAC Breda, and Aleix Garcia is edging closer to regular senior involvement.
There's even a long-term plan for when Caballero or the much-maligned Claudio Bravo depart, and, considering their not-so-convincing exploits between the sticks, Guardiola's hand could be forced soon.
"He's called Arijanet Muric and he is sensational," 110-time Ireland international Kevin Kilbane, a friend of under-18 coach Lee Carsley, told the "Off The Ball" podcast. "He could be (Manuel) Neuer, (David) De Gea, whoever. You name a name, this boy is unbelievable."
He added: "From what Guardiola did when he was at Barcelona, when he introduced so many kids, yeah, there's a chance (many of the under-18s could be introduced into the senior ranks)."
Early into Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano's 2012 appointments in Manchester, Guardiola was identified as the man to realise their ambitions, but with the simultaneous insistence on silverware, can the Spaniard afford to introduce the future now?
(Photos courtesy: Action Images)