Manchester City in trouble as injury list lengthens, says Pep Guardiola

LONDON – Manchester City winger Savinho and defender Manuel Akanji joined the club’s lengthy injury list after their 2-1 League Cup defeat by hosts Tottenham Hotspur on Oct 30, leaving manager Pep Guardiola to lament that he is left with only 13 available players in his squad.

Savinho was taken off on a stretcher in the 62nd minute with an apparent ankle injury, while Akanji did not start the match due to a muscle issue during the warmup.

Spurs will meet Manchester United in the quarter-finals after defeating a much-changed City, thanks to goals from Timo Werner and Pape Matar Sarr before Matheus Nunes halved the deficit.

City are already without key players Kevin de Bruyne, Rodri and Kyle Walker while Oscar Bobb, Jeremy Doku and Jack Grealish have also missed recent games, with several of them expected to return only after the November international break.

“We have 13 players (available) so we are in real difficulty. The guys that play, they finish most of them with problems and we’ll see how they recover,” said Guardiola after the match, adding that he will have only Erling Haaland and his two goalkeepers for the following day’s training session.

“I think we are in trouble, because in nine years, we’ve never been in the situation with so many injuries.

“Hopefully, he (Savinho) is not in danger but we will see... Akanji yesterday, I didn’t know it, in the last action felt something in the muscular part of his body and today in the warmup he didn’t feel good.”

City, who lead the Premier League by one point from Liverpool, travel to Bournemouth on Nov 2.

With an eye on their upcoming fixtures, including a Champions League match in Portugal on Nov 5 against Sporting Lisbon – who are coached by Manchester United target Ruben Amorim – Guardiola turned to his academy players such as Nico O’Reilly, Jacob Wright and Jahmai Simpson-Pusey.

Simpson-Pusey, 18, made his senior debut at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

In all, Guardiola made seven changes to the side who beat Southampton 1-0 on Oct 26 and they were opened up early as Spurs quickly played through their press.

Dejan Kulusevski picked out Werner in the box, and the German striker lashed the ball into the net for his first goal of the season after just five minutes.

Sarr got the second in the 25th minute after the ball found its way to him outside the penalty area following a well-worked corner, and the Senegalese midfielder curled it brilliantly inside the right-hand post.

City pulled one back in first-half stoppage time as Portuguese midfielder Nunes connected with a cross from Savinho to score with their first effort on target.

But the Brazilian was in tears after hurting his right ankle and had to be consoled by teammates as he was stretchered off.

That robbed City of momentum, but O’Reilly still almost grabbed a late equaliser, only for substitute Yves Bissouma to clear the ball off the line as Spurs hung on for victory.

“It’s a Cup tie played against a formidable opponent, I thought we did well for the most part,” Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou told Sky Sports as he stays on track to fulfil his promise of winning a trophy in his second season at the north London club.

“We didn’t allow too many clear-cut chances, we could have put the game away but City are always going to push you.”

The Australian manager had recently pointed to his record of winning a trophy in his second season or second full season in charge.

After leading South Melbourne and Brisbane Roar to the Australian title, he also won the 2015 Asian Cup with Australia and the J-League with Yokohama F. Marinos in 2019. After taking over Celtic in 2021, he led them to the Scottish Premier League and Scottish Cup double in the 2021-22 season, before winning the domestic treble in 2022-23.

Asked about his chances of leading Spurs to their first trophy since their 2008 League Cup triumph, he said: “There’s always an opportunity if you keep winning, but as I say, there are still some decent teams in there. What’s important is we’re in it.” REUTERS