Guardiola admits Man City stars could be frustrated with his team selection
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has admitted that he sometimes makes harsh decisions and many of the star players in the squad are likely to deem his team selection as unfair.
Sergio Aguero and Kevin de Bruyne were both on the bench in the 3-0 demolition of Wolves on Monday night, with Aguero watching his compatriot Gabriel Jesus scoring a brace.
Both the players came on in the second half, with de Bruyne’s whipped cross late in the game forcing an unintended deflection from Wolves captain Conor Coady to result in an own goal.
There were reports that de Bruyne was frustrated after being subbed off in the 9-0 win over Burton Albion in the semi-final of the Carabao Cup but Guardiola has defended his team selection by pointing out to the fact that City are still alive in four competitions and he needs to rotate his players to keep them fresh.
“I have an incredible squad, so if Kevin plays like he deserves to play, maybe [Ilkay] Gundogan doesn’t play – he made maybe six or seven assists in the last two games. He didn’t play today – and both deserve to play,” Guardiola told a news conference.
“But Bernardo [Silva] also deserves to play, what he has done so far, and Fernandinho what he has done against Liverpool. So that’s where he is and we’ve spoken about that. Today one of my favourite players, Phil [Foden], he was in the tribune.
“But there is a lot of games and everybody is going to play. Maybe the next game, new players are going to come in. So they have to be ready, and not only that they have to play good in all the details. Because if they don’t, another one is going to play.
“After that, I make a mistake, of course, I am unfair for many, many players and I know that. But today I decided for that and for the fresh players – like Aymeric [Laporte], John [Stones], Bernardo, Fernandinho – so it is what it is.”
Aguero’s illness has allowed Jesus to stake his claim with a remarkable run of seven goals in his last three City appearances.
