Pep Guardiola claims that he was resting Kevin De Bruyne when he hauled him before Manchester City's spectacular collapse at Wolves .
City blew a 2-0 lead at Wolves on Friday night as Raheem Sterling's double was cancelled out by strikes from Adama Traore, Raul Jimenez and Matt Doherty.
The Blues were playing the game with 10 men after goalkeeper Ederson was sent off in the early stages of the clash.
But Sterling's brace had City in the ascendancy - and Guardiola has admitted that he turned his attention to Sunday's game with Sheffield United.
As a result, he substituted off De Bruyne, City's most influential player, and replaced him with Ilkay Gundogan.
De Bruyne was visibly unhappy with the decision and the misery was only then compounded by a poor performance from Gundogan, who struggled to keep hold of the ball.
Asked why he took De Bruyne off, Guardiola said: "We have less than 48 hours for our next game."
Guardiola does not want to take any risks with his players given the injury problems they sustained last season - especially after De Bruyne limped out of the previous game vs Leicester .
On the turnaround, Guardiola told Amazon: "It is always what it is. We could not defend it at the end, they fought incredible, ran until the last minute. The goals could have been avoided."
He added: "Eighty minutes 10 against 11 is so tough, so demanding. We could not defend the result.
"We have to think of the next game and about winning our games. It’s unrealistic to think about that [catching Liverpool ]. In 48 hours we have another game.
On the gap to Liverpool he added: "It is big for a long time. It is not realistically to think about the title race. I have been asked the question for a long time and it is the same answer."
