Head coach Pep Guardiola has revealed a simple reason why Manchester City pair Kevin De Bruyne and Kyle Walker were benched for the match at Aston Villa.
Man City are in awful form heading into their match at Villa Park as they have only won one of their last eleven matches across all competitions. This leaves them 18th in the Premier League form table.
Pep Guardiola‘s side looked set to return to winning ways last weekend until Man Utd turned the Manchester derby on its head with two late goals in their shock 2-1 win at the Etihad.
It does not get much easier for Man City as they face Unai Emery’s team at Villa Park in the early kick-off on Saturday afternoon.
Guardiola made four changes for this match as Ederson and Matheus Nunes were not included in the squad, while De Bruyne and Walker dropped to the bench.
Explaining his decision to leave the two experienced players out, Guardiola gave a “simple” reason for this decision.
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Guardiola said: “For the way we have to play, I decided this line-up – simple as that.
“The solution is winning games. A top match and try to do our patterns – we really believe and we will try to play better every game.”
Defender Manuel Akanji added that they are “determined” to return to their best.
“With the many games we have there is always another opportunity. We come here and will try to get the three points,” Akanji said.
“A few more training sessions in a time like this is good. We can speak about the things we can improve. We are determined and nobody likes losing. We really want to turn this around and I hope we can do that today.”
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On Friday, Guardiola explained why “irreplaceable” Erling Haaland has been less “productive” for Man City lately.
“Erling is irreplaceable. Of course we need all the best version of them, no just one specific player,” Guardiola said.
“I would be so selfish in that position; I said many times if it was just playing one specific player the decision would be easy. It’s not about that.
“Many of the goals we concede, we give them away it’s not about one specific situation, the situation is more difficult, and you have to work on that step by step. The moment some results come back we will be better.
“I always played false nine for the quality specific to the players I had in that moment. I love to play man to man but with Erling I can’t do that.
“Erling is doing well. The reason why maybe he’s not productive [as normal] is that we don’t produce the amount of chances that we are able to do in the past.
“He’s surrounded by three four centre backs so it’s not easy for him we have to create more chances and create more spaces for him.”