Pep Guardiola misery set to continue as Man City boss spells out solution

Pep Guardiola is convinced he holds the answer to Manchester City’s current woes, but laments that remedies are a month out of reach. Following an exhausting trip to Selhurst Park last Saturday, made all the more challenging by Storm Darragh forcing them onto a bus rather than a plane, City’s title ambitions suffered yet another blow with just a draw against Crystal Palace.

In a match that on its own might not spell disaster, it’s the cumulative setbacks that now place City precariously close to losing out on a historic fifth consecutive league crown. The performance highlighted a glaring issue in midfield where City’s seasoned players struggled against a dominant Will Hughes.

Indeed, Palace’s midfielder had a field day besting Ilkay Gundogan, aged 34, and Bernardo Silva, who at 30 has already racked up over 650 career appearances, spotlighting a central squad seemingly depleted. Adding to City’s troubles, Kyle Walker, another mainstay at 34 years old, faltered notably during the game’s initial goal – an error met with clear frustration from powerhouse Erling Haaland, who was seen vividly expressing his discontent with the team’s captain.

Guardiola attributes this distressing streak to a scourge of injuries plaguing key players which prohibits adequate rotation of his stretched-thin stalwarts. “You know the solution, give me my players back and we will do it,” Guardiola stated emphatically.

“But it’s not possible right now and I don’t think it is going to happen for a long time.”

To compound City’s injury woes, Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake have added their names to the absentee list this past week, joining Phil Foden – recovering from bronchitis – and both John Stones and Mateo Kovacic who are out due to extended injuries, alongside long-term missing link Rodri.

“We demand from them a lot,” Guardiola confessed, acknowledging that for players who are used to competing for multiple trophies well into May, “there is a moment that the body cannot sustain.

“Everyone is working incredible this season, like I have never seen before. But the reality is that we have few players to rotate in this type of period. When we arrived in the last stages for the treble season or domestic quadruple it was because everybody was there and everybody was involved.”

Though it’s fair to say that Manchester City having a compact squad is by Guardiola’s design; he has always preferred a tighter group to avoid managing unhappiness on the bench. “If 14 don’t play for a long time I don’t want to be manager,” he revealed last year while praising players like Silva who can excel in numerous roles, suggesting, “That’s why when you recruit you have to look for players that can play in two or three positions.

“When people say they want two players for every position, I don’t agree with that.”

Pep Guardiola has issued a rallying cry to his City squad ahead of their crunch fixtures against Juventus and Manchester United, insisting they should welcome the challenge. “What I said to the players is, ‘Don’t feel sorry, please, accept the challenge.’ ” He believes overcoming current difficulties could yield greater satisfaction than previous title triumphs: “It will be more difficult but that’s what it is and maybe at the end we’ll have more satisfaction in the way we are going to behave with these problems than maybe in the other seasons that we won the title.”