THE NOTEBOOK: Pep Guardiola contradicts himself with Man City selection against Sheffield United

Pep Guardiola can sometimes be a contradiction. Manchester City have been at this stage four times under the Catalan and on two of those occasions, succumb to Liverpool and Chelsea after heavy squad rotation.

Those who were out of the reckoning in the weeks beforehand were thrown in and failed.

Guardiola said on the eve of this – a more comfortable assignment, albeit against very good Championship opposition – that his team were exhausted. 

And yet when the City XI came through, the rollcall included near ever-presents Erling Haaland, Ilkay Gundogan and Jack Grealish. 

The manager left nothing to chance after ‘naive’ performances in previous years. Penny for the thoughts of Kalvin Phillips, who sat on the bench until the 75th minute.

Pep Guardiola named a strong Manchester City side as they progressed past Sheffield United in the FA Cup semi-final

Spare a thought for Kalvin Phillips  who wasn’t introduced until the 75th minute

Club Wembley’s colour exchange

There is a ‘colour exchange’ on offer to supporters sat in Club Wembley. Sat in the posh seats and wearing your team’s scarf? You need to hand the offending item in at a hut.

Ex-Blades midfielder running the London Marathon 

Former City and Blades midfielder Michael Brown is running the London Marathon for the Christie NHS Foundation Trust, who helped him when diagnosed with malignant melanoma in 2020.

Former Sheffield United midfielder Michael Brown is running the London Marathon for the Christie NHS Foundation Trust

Sheffield’s self-confessed City supporter can’t help defeat

Sheffield United Anel Ahmedhodzic is a self-confessed Manchester City supporter after fellow countryman Edin Dzeko moved to England from Wolfsburg in 2011.

 Although Dzeko was the catalyst, Ahmedhodzic’s favourite player was Yaya Toure and he usually marauds forward just like the Ivorian in Paul Heckingbottom’s system.

 ‘The coach wants me to attack every time,’ he said. ‘I’ve never had that before.’ Sadly there was not much chance of that here.

Sheffield United’s Anel Ahmedhodzic (right) is a self-confessed Manchester City supporter

Cup-tied City duo cheered on

Tommy Doyle and James McAtee, on loan at Bramall Lane from City, were ineligible to play – a rule Guardiola disagreed with. 

The youngsters, sat watching behind the United bench, were cheered by all sides of the stadium when their names were read out. 

Tommy Doyle (middle) is on-loan at Sheffield United but couldn’t play against his parent club

Move needed to avoid future Wembley pain 

Is it finally time for these semi-finals to move around the country, or re-find a home in the Midlands? It’s a complete pain for fans of northern clubs. 

Little wonder neither team sold out their allocation given how expensive tickets are at Wembley and the travel chaos: only three direct trains to Manchester afterwards and two to Sheffield.

There were plenty of empty seats as both sets of fans faced huge costs to get to the capital