Pep Guardiola said Man City can still get some satisfaction from the league this season.
Pep Guardiola said Man City can still get some satisfaction from the league this season.
Pep Guardiola knows the solution to Manchester City’s problems. It’s just a pity he says they are a month away from being able to implement it.
City and their walking wounded left Selhurst Park on Saturday – forced to take the bus instead of their plane because of Storm Darragh – unable to drag themselves back into the title race.
A draw away to Crystal Palace may not be awful in isolation but the wider context means it is close to the final nail for their hopes of a fifth title in a row.
And as Palace’s Will Hughes bossed the midfield, it became easy to focus on three City players who are suddenly showing their age.
Erling Haaland and Kyle Walker moment that sums up where it's all going wrong for Man City
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Man City's day goes from bad to worse as Storm Darragh ruins flight plan after Crystal Palace draw](https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soccer/mancity-blow-stormdarragh-flight-crystalpalace-34271135)
Hughes had a field day against Ilkay Gundogan, 34, and Bernardo Silva, 30 but with more than 650 games under his belt, in an engine room that looks to have run out of fuel.
Kyle Walker, 34, was badly caught out for the opening goal – and the sight of Erling Haaland remonstrating with the City captain after spoke volumes.
But for Guardiola this horrific run of form is simply a case of having so many stars out injured that there is no chance to rest his overworked reliables.
“You know the solution, give me my players back and we will do it,” he said. “But it's not possible right now and I don’t think it is going to happen for a long time.”
Erling Haaland questions Kyle Walker after Manchester City conceded their first goal against Crystal Palace.
Erling Haaland questions Kyle Walker after Manchester City conceded their first goal against Crystal Palace.
Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake joined the injury ranks last week, while Phil Foden is recovering from bronchitis and both John Stones and Mateo Kovacic remain on the sidelines with long-term absentee Rodri.
“We demand from them a lot,” Guardiola said but after years of reaching May with several trophies to battle for some players are learning that “there is a moment that the body cannot sustain.”
He added: “Everyone is working incredible this season, like I have never seen before.
“But the reality is that we have few players to rotate in this type of period. When we arrived in the last stages for the treble season or domestic quadruple it was because everybody was there and everybody was involved.”
Fair enough but City having a small squad is entirely Guardiola’s choice. He has always preferred it that way because he does not want to deal with players unhappy to sit on the bench.
Rico Lewis is shown a red card at Crystal Palace having scored Man City's equaliser.
“If 14 don’t play for a long time I don’t want to be manager,” he said last year in a conversation where he also lauded the ability of several players to perform in multiple roles, including Silva.
“That’s why when you recruit you have to look for players that can play in two or three positions. When people say they want two players for every position, I don’t agree with that.“
Yet in the midst of this injury crisis that stance has come back to hurt him. Although Guardiola at least seems to be taking it in stride. “It's life. Sometimes it happens, you have to accept it, and this is the challenge,” he said.
And he is now calling on his players, who travel to Juventus on Wednesday before meeting United at the weekend, to embrace a different type of test – one, he claims, could bring more pleasure than lifting trophies.
“What I said to the players is, ‘Don't feel sorry, please, accept the challenge.’ It will be more difficult but that's what it is and maybe at the end we'll have more satisfaction in the way we are going to behave with these problems than maybe in the other seasons that we won the title.”
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