Pep Guardiola claims Manchester City have ’13 players’ and are in ‘difficulty’ after his side suffered more injuries in League Cup defeat. at Tottenham Wednesday.
The visitors, already without six first-team players for the match, lost defender Manuel Akanji to a calf problem during the warm-up.
Striker Savinho was then sent off on a stretcher in the 63rd minute of the match after appearing to have an ankle injury.
Guardiola also said defender Ruben Dias, who came off at half-time, “struggled at times”.
“We have 13 players, we are in real difficulty,” Guardiola said.
“The guys who are playing finish most of them with problems and we will see how they recover.
“I think we are in trouble, because in nine years we have never been in a situation with so many injuries.
“The players are taking a step forward, more together than ever, and we will try to do that this week in this short recovery time.”
How long will injured Man City players be out?
Defensive midfielder Rodri is out for the rest of the season after rupture of his anterior cruciate ligament in September.
Attacking midfielder Oscar Bobb is also out for an extended period after fracturing his leg in August. Guardiola said at that time he would be absent ‘three or four months.’
Kevin de Bruyne, who missed five months last season following surgery, is out with a thigh injury and while he was initially expected to only be out in the short term, Guardiola has recently declared that he ‘I didn’t know’ when he was in good shape.
Full-back Kyle Walker is out with a knee injury and no date on a potential return, while forwards Jeremy Doku and Jack Grealish have missed recent games with injuries. Guardiola said he didn’t expect Doku will be in good shape before the international break in November.
Before Wednesday’s match, Guardiola named just seven substitutes against Southampton this weekend and Sparta Prague last week, with two goalkeepers on the bench for the latter.
“Tomorrow we will have two goalkeepers and Erling Haaland in training,” Guardiola said after the Tottenham defeat.
“The rest, we have nothing else.”
Do Man City really only have “13 players”?
Based on the squad list on Manchester City’s official website, it appears Guardiola’s claim is correct.
He will obviously be able to call on players from the youth team, but excluding injured players, here are the available outfield players from the Manchester City first team:
Defenders:
Nathan Ake, Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol, Rico Lewis, John Stones, Josh Wilson-Esbrand
Midfield:
Phil Foden, Ilkay Gundogan, Mateo Kovacic, James McAtee, Matheus Nunes, Bernardo Silva
Advantages:
Erling Haaland
This totals 13 outfield players, but includes Josh Wilson-Esbrand, who has not made a first-team appearance for the club.
How could this affect Man City?
Guardiola said that in preparing for Wednesday’s match, his main hope was to finish the match without any further injuries.
Although they lost to Spurs, Manchester City’s young players showed promise and only a brilliant block on the line prevented 19-year-old Nico O’Reilly from equalizing late.
Manchester City are top of the Premier League, unbeaten in Europe but have failed to reach the quarter-finals of the League Cup, and Guardiola recently said that if the injured players did not return soon, his team would have struggling to participate in multiple competitions.
“Of course, if these guys don’t come back as quickly as possible, we’ll struggle, because we can’t hold on with just 14 or 15 players for the season,” he said.
“We need the players to come back.”
