Man City v Nottingham Forest: Pep Guardiola press conference

ManchesterWorld

Michael Plant brings you the latest from Manchester City's pre-match press conference.

Transcript

00:00I'm at Manchester City's CFA training base where this afternoon Pep Guardiola held his

00:04pre-match press conference ahead of the Premier League game against Nottingham Forest.

00:08Of course a game that City come into on the back remarkably of a winless run in seven

00:13games in all competitions and they've lost the last four in the Premier League, both

00:17of which are the worst sequence of results under Pep Guardiola during his time at Manchester

00:22City but despite that he was still pretty defiant in today's press conference, talked

00:26up his squad, backed them and said that if everyone was available he is confident that

00:30they would still be near the levels that have seen them over the last four years become

00:34Premier League champions.

00:37I suppose it's a bit of a surprise really coming into this game that it is fifth v six,

00:40I don't think very many people would have expected that but as Guardiola did mention

00:44injuries have been a big factor in City's recent downturn.

00:48John Stones has been a very important player for Guardiola certainly over the last couple

00:51of years but really throughout his tenure here at the Etihad he has missed the last

00:55two games, only played one of the last six with a recurring foot injury and Guardiola

01:00said he's not going to be available for this game against Nottingham Forest and said perhaps

01:04it could be next week or the week after maybe.

01:06So still not an option for City in defence which is a bit of an issue but Kevin De Bruyne

01:11is certainly recovering and getting better.

01:13He of course has had that long-term pelvis injury which is, you know, he hasn't started

01:17a game since the middle of September, an injury that we initially thought would only keep

01:21him out for perhaps a couple of days or even a week or so but he's dragged on and on.

01:25De Bruyne did say last week that he is playing without pain for the first time in a long

01:29time and perhaps we could see him from the start against Forest, certainly no indication

01:34from Pep Guardiola that there's any issue between the two certainly as has been alleged

01:39by a couple of high-profile Sky Sports pundits over the last couple of days.

01:44And then in terms of team news, the only other question I suppose was who will start next

01:47because Stefan Ortega came in between the sticks against Liverpool at the weekend and

01:53in place of Ederson who made that mistake against Fianna Fáil during last week's Champions League game.

01:58Guardiola insisted that Ederson is still first choice keeper but said that we could perhaps

02:01see Stefan Ortega face Forest again in mid-week, well he said we could see him for a couple

02:06of games perhaps.

02:07So he's given Ortega a lot of game time over the last couple of years so in some ways not

02:11a real surprise and he's always spoken about Ortega's quality, spoken about him as one

02:15of the best shot-stoppers in the league so perhaps not a surprise that he has been given

02:19a bit of a run out.

02:20And of course City, given the current run, they're having a lot of questions asked about

02:24this squad, about the general direction of them, certainly about the age and Peppers

02:27asked about as well perhaps strengthening in the transfer window and said once again

02:32as he said a couple of times before and I'm certainly not a guarantee that City do look

02:35to do anything in the January window.

02:37But I do feel it's a big game against Forest because City in this winless run of seven

02:41games of course have lost six of those but most of them have been away from home and

02:44City's home record has been fantastic over the last couple of years, albeit they of course

02:48did lose against Tottenham 4-0 last time at home but I suppose they can have those sorts

02:53of days and while it was obviously a bad performance it wasn't maybe the most incredible, unbelievable

02:59defeat ever.

03:01The Fanoid game as well, very disappointing to concede those three goals late on but again

03:05they did at least manage to get a point.

03:07I think if they were to lose to Forest tomorrow night, a Forest side who have done really

03:11well this season as I said sitting sixth in the table but I think there would be a lot

03:14of questions asked about losing against a side who many backed to be in the relegation

03:18fight before the start of the season.

03:19I think it would certainly ramp up the volume and the spotlight on City if they were to

03:24slip up.

03:25I think they'll come back, I think they'll win here tomorrow night against Forest and

03:30perhaps start to resurrect their season a little bit.

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