Man City v Man Utd: Pep Guardiola preview

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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola spoke to the media ahead of the Manchester derby and revealed he has a defensive selection crisis.

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 Manchester derby. This weekend, of course, a game that

00:08City go into on the back of a run of defeats, well seven in their last ten and have just

00:13won one in that run of games. A remarkable run of fixtures really, one that certainly

00:18no one foresaw beforehand and in many ways I think City, some people there's a feeling

00:22that this is actually the perfect fixture for them to come back to and perhaps bring

00:26an end to that losing run of games. But, one of the big problems for City over the

00:30last couple of weeks has been the inability to select players and the lack of options

00:34available to Guardiola and it was something that he was speaking about today in his press

00:38conference because he revealed he only has three fit senior defenders available to him,

00:43Kyle Walker, Ruben Diaz and Josco Vardial. Of course, Rico Lewis is suspended following

00:48his red card last week against Crystal Palace but we're not expecting Akanji, Ake or Stones

00:53to be back. He does have Jemai Simpson Puzi but he's still seen as a bit of an inexperienced

00:56option at these stages I think. So Guardiola admitted he doesn't really know what he's

01:00going to do because he's either going to have to ask a winger to play a full back, perhaps

01:03Mateus Nunes was mentioned as an option or even play with a back three and play with

01:07wing backs but Guardiola admitted he's actually not sure at this stage how he's going to go

01:10about it and United over various seasons have offered a real threat against City on the

01:15break so it's certainly one that Guardiola is going to have to think about. And in general,

01:19he was airing his frustrations about injuries this season referencing the fact that in his

01:24eyes the one problem at the moment with his team isn't the players or isn't his choice

01:30or isn't the group that he's got available to him, it's the schedule because he says

01:33that players are just having to come back immediately, not given time to recuperate

01:37properly from injuries, playing through problems and therefore sustaining more injuries. He

01:41said Nathan Ake who came back from an injury a couple of weeks ago sustained another injury

01:46straight away. He said why is Ake injured? Because he came back and had to play straight

01:49away. I asked him about Kevin De Bruyne and he said he's got no option at the moment to

01:52play him. Obviously he was wary of putting him back into the team having suffered that

01:56pelvis injury and been out for the guts of two months but Guardiola has told him in the

02:01last three matches and essentially saying today, well I've got no choice, I don't have

02:04any other option but to do that. So that's a big concern for City and they really are

02:07limited certainly in defensive options this weekend ahead of the Derby. And I suppose

02:12the other big talking point from the press conference, he was asked about January transfers.

02:15Of course City announced today their latest financial figures. Very healthy revenue streams

02:21once again for the club bringing new records in that area. It means that it's the third

02:26year in a row that City have posted really significant profits and there is a feeling

02:30that if City want to go into the transfer market they certainly have the funds to do

02:34so. But Guardiola kind of poured a little bit of cold water on that today saying just

02:37because the revenue is high doesn't necessarily mean that all those funds can be spared for

02:42transfers. There's obviously so much more in running the club and keeping them sustainable

02:46than just paying for transfers. I think that was a little bit of a white lie if I'm honest.

02:50I think there's certainly the funds there if Guardiola wants to dip into the market

02:53in January or perhaps next summer. But we'll have to see and I think in Guardiola's eyes

02:57he has referenced quite a few times that the squad he's got now is very good, capable of

03:02competing for the title again. He just needs to get everyone back in fit. But I certainly

03:06will hope that a win against Manchester United, his old rivals, will be a catalyst to get

03:10the season going again. Of course another meeting with Ruben Amirim who he was full

03:14of praise for actually today said that he thinks he will be a success at Manchester

03:17United as well. I've seen that one in the long term. But for now City will just be hoping

03:20to get back to winning ways this weekend in the Derby.

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