Pep Guardiola, the manager of Manchester City, has stated that his team is “in trouble” as a result of their growing injury list, which poses a risk to the club’s attempt to maintain its flawless start to the season.
During City’s 3-1 victory over Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League, the visiting team’s bench consisted of only six outfield players.
And their seventh consecutive victory across all competitions came at a cost, as midfielder Bernardo Silva became the latest player to pick up an injury that, according to Guardiola, will keep him out for “the next few weeks.” This victory was City’s seventh consecutive victory across all competitions.
The Portuguese international is the fifth player on the bench for the team, joining Kevin de Bruyne, Jack Grealish, Mateo Kovacic, and John Stones.
This comes after City parted ways with Riyad Mahrez, Cole Palmer, and Aymeric Laporte over the summer, skipper Ilkay Gundogan joined Barcelona after his contract with City was up, and Joao Cancelo, along with youngsters Tommy Doyle and James McAtee, left the club on loan.
Few people will have compassion for Guardiola because of the enormous amounts of money he has spent on his team.
However, Guardiola’s statement comes at a time when City still has three more Premier League games to play, one of which is a trip to Arsenal on October 8, a Carabao Cup fixture at Newcastle, and another Champions League outing, this time at RB Leipzig, before the next international break.
“We are in a bad spot, but I’m not going to say ‘oh, we have a lot of injuries’ just yet,” she said. According to Guardiola, “it is what it is.”
“Given the players we have, we are going to give it our all. As long as we keep thinking like that, everything will be fine.
It would be tough for us to maintain this level of injury for an extended period of time given that we have five pretty crucial players out.
During the summer, City spent almost £200 million purchasing new players, including Matheus Nunes, who made his first start for the club since he was acquired from Wolves for £53 million on the final day of the transfer window.
“We are not able to have 55 players because of the salaries and the budgets for the transfers,” Guardiola explained further. “It would cause complete anarchy in the clubs. They would be forced into bankruptcy.
“It is unfortunate that Kevin will have to wait such a long time. John decided not to play because he thought it was too long. It’s possible that Kova will return. Jack might be back in a week or ten days, but only after he has had his treatment.
