Pep Guardiola says Man City have 13 players available and are ‘in real difficulty’ as injuries mount

Pep Guardiola claimed Manchester City were in trouble after they suffered further injuries in a 2-1 loss at Tottenham in the Carabao Cup to leave them with only 13 first-team players available.

Already without Kyle Walker, Rodri, Oscar Bobb, Jeremy Doku, Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish for the fourth-round tie, Manuel Akanji was withdrawn ahead of kick-off before Savinho left on a stretcher in the second half.

Guardiola was measured after first-half goals by Timo Werner – his first in 18 matches – and Pape Sarr inflicted a first defeat of the campaign on City, but he acknowledged problems are mounting before Saturday’s trip to Bournemouth, which is followed by a Champions League fixture at Sporting Lisbon.

“We have 13 players (available) so we are in real difficulty,” Guardiola said.

“The guys that play, they finish most of them with problems and we’ll see how they recover.

Rico is the only player we cannot rest. We would like to rest, but we cannot do it. I have no alternative. My captain [Kyle Walker] is injured, so I don’t have an alternative.

“Tomorrow we have two keepers and Erling Haaland for the training session, the rest, so we don’t have anything else.

“I think when we are in trouble, like we are because in nine years it has never happened this situation with many, many injuries for many, many reasons, in these situations, the players they make a step forward and they are more together than ever and they will try to do this week in this short time to recover.

“It’s only that how many players we have able. But we have the Academy and if the seniors cannot be there, we’ll do it. And we’re going to Bournemouth to compete.

He added: “It’s tough. Akanji yesterday, I didn’t know it, in the last action felt something in the muscular part of his body and today in the warm-up he didn’t feel good. He said he could take a risk and I said no, no risk.

“Ruben (Dias) is struggling sometimes as well in some moments. It’s been getting more difficult game by game, but maybe one day we will arrive altogether.

“That’s why the guys who are here and making an effort to be with us, fighting to be with us and playing with pain and focus for us, these guys I will not forget it.”

Savinho went down just before the hour mark and after treatment a stretcher was required to take him off.

Guardiola hoped it was only a “knock” and revealed Erling Haaland was always set to stay on the bench despite Matheus Nunes’ effort in first-half stoppage time giving City the opportunity to come back from two goals down.

The visitors did create late chances and Tottenham substitute Yves Bissouma cleared an effort by Nico O’Reilly off the line in the 89th minute.

“He (Savinho) has a knock in 18-yard box, a potential penalty and we will see tomorrow what happen,” Guardiola added.

“Hopefully he is not in danger but we will see. The plan was before, (Haaland) didn’t play and the game against Southampton was so demanding.

“I didn’t want to take risk with him today in this competition. I don’t like to lose, but this competition is a bit different. I like to see the team how we behave, the courage and solidarity of how we play.”

No disrespect to Spurs winning, but you could see who wanted it more. When Guardiola isn’t brining on Haaland with 15 minutes to go, that tells you were Man City were. They already had a couple of injuries and didn’t want anymore.

Haaland a risk not worth taking for threadbare City

Sky Sports’ Oliver Yew at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium:

“Tomorrow we have two keepers and Erling Haaland for the training session.”

Pep Guardiola was clear in his post-match press conference about the scale of Man City’s injury crisis with just 13 players available, and it showed in their Carabao Cup defeat to Tottenham on Wednesday.

With just under 20 minutes remaining and searching for an equaliser, all eyes were on the Man City bench. There was only one man you’d turn to for a goal but was Guardiola going to turn to goal machine Haaland?

The answer was no and as Jahmai Simpson-Pusey came on as City’s final substitute, you knew Haaland was a risk Guardiola was not willing to take.

Three away games on the trot against Bournemouth, Sporting and Brighton wouldn’t normally be of too much concern for City, but how Guardiola navigates his threadbare squad through this period will be a huge test for the manager regarded as the best in the world.

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