The winger has been ruled out for Manchester City since sustaining an injury away at Wolves last month, which has contributed to the ongoing injury plague for the champions.
It was a subdued mood from the City head coach at his press conference, as he has now lost three games on the bounce – he has never lost four in a row at any point during his managerial career, let alone at Manchester City.
A trip to the South Coast is therefore a banana skin for Pep Guardiola, who, albeit is in a difficult moment, has his side only two points adrift of early pacesetters, Liverpool.
That so-called injury crisis is starting to hurt the league leaders, and a damning 4-1 defeat away in Lisbon midweek means that this is a time to be resilient, not pessimistic in a lull for their players.
Despite the bad results, the Manchester City head coach has insisted that he is still happy with the performances of his time this season despite the results faltering on a few occasions.
When questioned on his impressive record of never losing four in a row, the Catalan was rather hoping than adamant that it would not become four.
Guardiola commented: “This could be the first time in my entire life, hopefully it is not the case. Twenty minutes against Fulham weren’t good, against Bournemouth we were not good, but the rest of the games we were good.”
The line of questioning then moved towards the past three results in particular, and the difficulty of playing strong opposition in those games, but all in different competitions, and the mindset of his players after recent results.
“It’s different competitions. We are not used to playing in three games in different competitions but its football, it happens.
“We are looking forward to this game and then the international break, then after that a few players will come back better and recover, and for all the problems we have, all the little problems the player has, they will solve it,” Guardiola added.
“I know them for nine years, they have showed me many times they are capable. My opinion has not changed of them, sometimes this happens.”
When asked about Sporting specifically he was frustrated with the penalties conceded.
“Just because of the penalties and the way we concede them – at 2-1 we can come back, we have a penalty on 69 minutes and because of the action, of course it is a penalty.
“In Europe it is given, in the Premier League it is not because of the way the referees conduct themselves is different. We have to improve on that.”
-
Why was Grealish picked?
There has been bemusement in relation to Jack Grealish being selected for England, as the winger has not yet returned to the Man City first team since the injury.
That feeling appeared to be shared by Pep Guardiola, who shared just how little the midfielder has trained thus far.
“It’s his decision. In seventeen days he didn’t train once, today was his first training and he trained 20 minutes. This is the reality,” Guardiola explained.
“I’m really pleased the players love to play with their country, but when they are not fit, they have to recover.”
Although he was relatively tight-lipped on the situation, and did not share his thoughts on Grealish heading to England, he says England can pick who they want and he has no authority on that.
“The medical department didn’t speak [to me]. I don’t know [if Grealish is ready].”
“They can select all the players that they want. Jack today trained, and they believe they can help. I am not the guy to say you cannot go. For my team, tomorrow, he is not fit. That is all I can say. After two days and two weeks, he did not train,” the Catalan insisted.
Though when discussing the matter with the player himself, the opinion was very much positive towards joining up with the national team.
“Yeah [I have spoken to him]. [He said] I would like to go to the national team.”
-
Team News and Brighton
On the rest of his team, Guardiola was basic in his response; wait until after the international break.
“No good news. The same as it was in Lisbon, the same guys who travelled are still [available],” noted the City head coach on his injured players.
One of those who could return fully after the international break is Dutch defender Nathan Ake. The 29-year-old was not selected by Ronald Koeman for the international break. Pep Guardiola seemed optimistic in his return for Tottenham in a fortnight.
“He’s getting better. Not fully fit, but he is getting better,” he commented briefly.
As he typically does towards his opposition and their manager, praise was heaped on Fabian Hürzeler and Brighton ahead of the match tomorrow evening.
The German manager has been full of praise for Guardiola, which was therefore exchanged in his press conference.
