Pep Guardiola names two Man City players he’s forced to play as injury problems mount

Pep Guardiola names two Man City players he’s forced to play as injury problems mount

 

 

Pep Guardiola has named two Manchester City players he should miss out on amid his growing injury problems.

Pep Guardiola has named two Manchester City players amid mounting injury problems.

Manchester City continued their disappointing run of form with a defeat at Brighton, registering their fourth straight defeat and second consecutive defeat in the Premier League.

Pep Guardiola refused to make excuses for Manchester City’s back-to-back defeats but named players unavailable to show how different the Blues are from the top flight. City have lost to Tottenham, Bournemouth, Sporting and Brighton in 11 days and arrive at the Amex Stadium with a fresh set of injuries, with Jeremy Doku ruled out.

Guardiola said his side had performed well against Brighton, Spurs and Sporting but bemoaned the intensity and aggression of the team which wore them down throughout the 90 minutes.

He left Manu Akanji and Nathan Ake on the bench while Jahmai Simpson-Pusey made his Premier League debut.

Kyle Walker struggled but Guardiola said he was not fully fit, while Kevin De Bruyne failed to stay in the game on the bench. Both played early. “Kyle has trained a few times this season and is not ready for 90 minutes at all,” explained Guardiola. “Hopefully we can maintain the level when the whole team comes back.

Every team has many injuries. Hopefully we can change that once all the players are ready.

“Actually, we don’t have any players. Also, four central defenders were injured. And their best player, Rodri, was gone. Kevin is not doing his best. Doku is injured. Jack Grealish is injured.

You can only do this for one match, but not permanently. “In the second half you can play Manu, Nathan, Ruben (Diaz) and when you have to change the game at the last minute you can play Doku or another player, but we can’t do that. I’m like I’m complaining but don’t get me wrong.

It is not true. I think we did very well. “But if you ask how it compares to last season, last season we qualified, that’s the biggest difference, but we have to survive and we have to live with it and better act.”

Guardiola also confirmed that Ake and Akanji will play no part, despite being on the bench. “Otherwise we would have played,” he said. “I had 10 days to recover, so I went into the game and I wasn’t ready yet,” said Manu, “I felt bad” because he couldn’t move properly in training. “I like the rookies against this team,” he said.