Leeds United travel to the Etihad Stadium to face Manchester City on Saturday, with pressure mounting on Daniel Farke
Brian Dick Reach Football Correspondent
13:29, 28 Nov 2025
Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola
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Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola(Image: Getty Images)
Manchester City will be without Rodri for this weekend’s clash with Leeds United, a game Pep Guardiola insists will be a ‘demanding’ fixture.
The midfielder has played just one minute of Premier League football since October 5 and while Guardiola said Spain international was ‘not much far’, he did concede a hamstring injury will keep him out against United tomorrow. Mateo Kovacic is the other confirmed absentee.
City go into the game on the back of consecutive defeats to Newcastle United last Saturday and a midweek Champions League reverse to Bayer Leverkusen, in which the head coach made ten changes.
He will face a Leeds United side that has lost its last three, albeit last weekend’s reverse at the hands of Aston Villa came after an improved display.
Guardiola spoke of his admiration for under-fire Leeds boss Daniel Farke. “I have an incredible opinion of Daniel,” he said. “We have, I think a really good relationship with him and I know the Premier League is always like that.
“You are able to make a good run of results, but at the end you can make bad results and continue because the opponents are tough. Every opponent is really prepared. They have a long week to prepare and so it’s so demanding, so we have to be ready.”
Guardiola admitted the nature of his side’s poor performance on Tuesday evening has given him something to think about when it comes to making extensive changes.
“We know the competition is tough. It's not about disappointing results but always I'm talking most in the performance, and of course the results helps to have better performance. But I'm not disappointed about, Newcastle, but the last one yeah, for my decisions and we didn't try, so simple as that.
“In football, when you're playing on the greens, you have to try things, we didn't try, that's all. So maybe I'll have a theory to rotate You have to rotate because it's impossible to sustain, but I thought ‘I have a lot of confidence of them’. Still right now I have a lot.
“I have a huge value what they are as football players that maybe is higher than them in themselves. It was a good lesson for me. So even quite experienced as a manager, that's a good lesson for me for the future.”
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