Pep Guardiola put together the best team in Europe for the past six months, won the Premier League and League Cup, and lost the final because of that old pernicious habit of his: overthinking. That's the popular narrative, and because we've seen it before, especially in the Champions League -- Aymeric Laporte at left-back against Liverpool in 2017-18, Kevin De Bruyne benched against Tottenham in 2018-19, the weird setup against Lyon last year -- this weekend's "Raheem Sterling for a defensive midfielder" switch will get lumped into that same category.
There's some truth to it, but it's far too simplistic to say it cost City the Treble. More of a concern is how this side paid a price for (essentially) 3½ weeks of being present in body but not in mind, playing out four effectively meaningless (for them) games between the PSG semifinal, second leg and the final.
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