**Man City**come up against Palermo in their only friendly fixture before the beginning of the Premier League. The manager, Pep Guardiola, sees no need to be risky as he takes a trip to Italy, explaining the absence of one attacker, whom he hopes will be back at his best this campaign, is a "precaution."
‘The mood is quite similar’
**Man City**crashed out with a 4-3 loss to **Al-Hilal**in extra time of their Round of 16 tie in the Club World Cup at the start of July. They have not played any fixtures since that elimination over a month ago, but the squad is still in good spirits as the start of the 2025/26 season draws closer for this camp.
“It looks really good. Some are back with niggles and injuries, but the mood is quite similar to the Club World Cup in USA. We needed to rest and we decided on more training sessions than games. “
Before the end of August, two away days for the Citizens sandwich the visit of a bogey opponent. The manager made clear that the lack of playing time might impact performance across the three outings.
“Of course, maybe, we have missed some friendly games to prepare to arrive in the first three games, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Tottenham Hotspur, and Brighton in a little bit better of a condition.”
Injuries wreaked havoc on the ambitions of the club last campaign, so the strength of the squad shall be critical to their goals this term. For the moment, Pep is pleased with the options at his disposal.
“That is good. This season I saw the all the schedule in my office and I said after September we play every three, four days for the rest of the months so at the end we will need players.”
The Spaniard sees a smaller squad as preferrable, and felt one player ought to earn experience on loan.
*“In my opinion, I don't like too many players. It is one of the reasons Vitor Reis for example has gone to Girona. I love Vitor a lot. He has an incredible future but I don't want him every weekend at home. The transfer window is moving a lot. Many things will happen. We will handle it as best as possible.”*
‘The mood is quite similar’
The 54-year-old opened up about two centrepieces of the club who will be missing from this match. One of them, the local star boy of the side, suffered a small niggle in training that is not too serious.
“Phil Foden* had a problem with a hard knock in the ankle and that's why for precaution we did it.”*
The other, who has the Ballon d'Or title, wishes to make a clean break from the issues with his ACL.
“*Rodri*is even better but he had a big injury during the last game against Al-Hilal and the five six weeks is training, in the last two three days better, hopefully after international break is when maybe he’ll be really fit. We do not want him to come back and get injured, come back and get injured.”
Both men might be absent from the matchday squad for the first league matchday against Wolves.
*“90 minutes for Rodri, I don't think so Phil I hope but we have a long week, so hopefully, it happens.”*
Without Rodri, City are a little light on options at the base of their midfield. Even if the Spaniard selects other central players to feature deeper, he has a tight unit of men he would consider sixes.
*“Right now, I would say three. We have Mateo Kovacic back in September, October hopefully. Rodri comes back and Nico Gonzalez. The others can play there but they are all more attacking midfielders.*
“They are people more in the box. Ilkay Gundogan can play there, Tijjani Reijnders can play there but when everybody is fit they're positioned to play more up front. We have Phil, Rayan Cherki too.”
There was time to discuss one more newcomer, as the club chose to commit £31 million to buy James Trafford. He never played for the first team when he broke into the men's game, but made the most of his time in Burnley. Now, he shall scrap against **Ederson**and **Stefan Ortega**to get the starting spot.
*“We knew he will be one of the top British keepers for the next 10 years. He did an incredible season with Burnley. We didn't miss the opportunity. We are pleased and after he’ll fight with other keepers.”*