Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola on Manuel Akanji having a hip injury and the limited options he has in defence ahead of the Manchester derby against United.
Etihad Training Campus, Manchester, UK
Etihad Training Campus, Manchester, UK
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Can I just check, the injury that Manu Akandji has got, what actually is it? Is it a muscle problem or a knock?
00:08No, having discomfort in the area for the pelvis, for the abductor, and it doesn't feel good.
00:16He is making an incredible effort, playing in Bournemouth where there was him and Nathan were not even the half of his best
00:26and help us to play there and at the end he can play the time, he can play for 45 minutes, 15 minutes after he had to step back
00:34and said I have to recover otherwise I cannot be.
00:39Manu is a strong player and he is so reliable but in that moment he cannot be there.
00:46It sounds like you have only got three defenders for Sunday, are you going to have to do something special with positional?
00:56Because obviously there is no Rico either.
01:00I don't know. I don't know what I have to do. I need players. I have three and we will see what happens today and tomorrow
01:09and the players we have and we will think about it. Maybe Sam Winger has to play as a full-back or Mateus maybe can play as a full-back
01:19or maybe play with five in the back when wing-backs are wingers. I don't know. I am thinking a little bit.
01:29We are thinking what to do for the situation that you have just three central defenders.
01:34The soul and the spirit of this team is there. We are sad. I am sad for the players because the way they run and they fight with the circumstances they have.
01:45Bernardo has a lot of minutes to play. Gundu can play in a position sometimes but he is playing alone there in that position game by game
01:53and at the end arriving in the final third three or four times to arrive.
01:57Rico, our more consistent player of the season, for the decision for the referee cannot play there.
02:05Of course, I think I know our fans, maybe they are sad. I understand completely because we are used to, you know,
02:13maybe we lose seven games, eight games in one season or two seasons.
02:17And now we play one month, a month and a half, so normally they are sad but they know that this group of players have made an era
02:27and eight, nine, ten years that no one has done and the numbers, the records, not negative ones but the positive ones they have done,
02:37this group of players, I encourage them to support them until the end because they deserve it.
02:43It's unbelievable what they have done, they do in the circumstances that we have to compete in this calendar,
02:49in the season there are more games than ever in terms of the Champions League and whatever, have more injuries than ever
02:54and it made me reflect that today maybe in this calendar you need a squad for 25, 30 players.
02:59It will be more difficult financially for the club but today we are going to play the World Cup in summer, three weeks,
03:08start again the Premier League and maybe we have to have more depth squad because when the people say what is the problem,
03:17the problem is the schedule. It's not the training, it's not the physio, it's not the doctors, it's not the players,
03:23it's not how they foot, it's not how they rest, it's just one problem, it's the schedule.
03:28And the schedule sooner or later, they will happen for all the clubs.
03:34Look at Madrid for example, they cannot collapse how many injuries, and this is the truth.
03:40So without players everything is more difficult because when we won it was thinking.
03:44When we won the treble, the four domestics, we had one, two, three injuries, muscular sometimes,
03:50but we were so stable. That's why we could compete and now we cannot.
03:54We can survive, like I said, it's time to survive, survive, stay there, be closer than ever
04:00and sooner or later the players come back and we qualify for the Champions League.
04:06We're not busy, but we qualify and we're going to be there.
04:09I don't know in January, February what's going to happen to our team.
04:12Always we respond well, so we'll see.