Pep Guardiola Admits Man City Players Not Competitive Enough to Have One Match Every Three Days

DBasia.news – Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola admits the Citizens squad is currently not competitive enough to be able to appear every three days. As a result, Guardiola plans to make a large rotation when Man City face Bournemouth in the League Cup competition on Thursday (24/9) local time.

In the inaugural match of the Premiere League, Man City successfully beat Wolves 3-1, last weekend. The Citizens won through goals scored each by Kevin de Bruyne, Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus. Even so, in that match City could not field seven players in the first team.

Apart from Ilkay Gundogan who had to undergo a period of isolation after contracting the Covid-19 virus, City minus the presence of Joao Cancelo, Bernardo Silva, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Sergio Aguero, Aymeric Laporte, and Eric Garcia. These players are expected to be absent when City face Bournemouth.

With this condition, Guardiola admits, the City squad cannot perform optimally when carrying out a busy schedule in domestic competition or playing one match every three days. The Spanish coach will conduct an evaluation regarding the condition of the remaining players in the Citizens squad.

”We only have a recovery period of three days. We have won the competition in the last three seasons and hope to keep it this season. However, right now, we don’t have enough players to be able to perform once every three days,” Guardiola said as quoted by the Press Association, Tuesday (22/9).

In order to maintain energy and be able to compete in the Premiere League, the former Barcelona manager revealed that it is not impossible to promote a number of City youth team players in the match against Bournemouth. Guardiola also hopes that the seven players who still cannot be deployed can return to the Citizens’ main team soon.

”What we want is the return of these seven players. With short preparation and seven players who are still absent, I have to keep the remaining players to be able to perform optimally in the coming weekend or when facing Leicester City on the Premiere League stage,” he concluded.