Pep Guardiola: Manchester City will use all five substitutes to prepare for Champions League return
Pep Guardiola says that he will use all five of his available substitutes in each of the remaining Premier League matches, to give Manchester City the best possible chance of Champions League success when the competition resumes.
City face Arsenal on Wednesday night as domestic football returns for the first time since the fixture was postponed exactly 14 weeks ago at the start of the coronavirus outbreak.
Since then, the country has been in lockdown, but June 17 marks a major step on the road to recovery, as live Premier League football returns to Sky Sports.
City are second in the Premier League table, with little chance of catching runaway leaders Liverpool who are just two wins away from clinching the title.
However, Guardiola’s side are in the last-16 of the Champions League and won the first leg of their tie against Real Madrid 2-1 at the Bernabeu in February.
UEFA are expected to sign off a 12-day mini-tournament held in Lisbon in August among the eight quarter-finalists, with Guardiola already beginning to plan how to win the one major trophy that he is yet to bring to Manchester.
„The five players on the bench, five of them are going to play,“ Guardiola explained to Sky Sports News.
„I don’t know how many minutes but they are going to play for sure because it is the only way you can protect the players for this next month-and-a-half, two months.
„When we arrive in the last stages of the Champions League, the only way to avoid injuries to the players is to rotate them, all of them.“
Starting on Wednesday night, Premier League clubs can name nine players on the bench for the first time instead of seven, as part of new rules to help look after player welfare during an intense period of games.
Recovery will be key during such a punishing schedule, and Guardiola believes the natural fitness of someone like Phil Foden could be a key weapon for the remainder of the season.
„Not because he [Foden] is younger, it is because he is strong,“ the City boss added.
„For example him, [Raheem] Sterling, Bernardo [Silva], Riyad [Mahrez] and Kyle [Walker], these kind of players they take the physical condition quick because it is normal, and I think they have more opportunities to stay longer during the game.“
Guardiola is not expecting many home comforts from the clash with Arsenal at the Etihad, with uncertainty over how his players will react to playing without fans.
Since last month’s restart, the Bundesliga has seen a higher proportion of away teams winning in empty stadiums.
„When you play with your people, your momentums, you are being supported in the good moments. They encourage you more to do it, that’s why the home games are easier to win. But at the moment, it is the same.
„Of course the distance, the locker room, the places you have been are a little bit better but at the same time, you don’t have this extra plus that you normally have in home games.
„At the beginning, it will be strange – it was strange when we worked last week at the Etihad Stadium, with the locker rooms and the social distance. We changed in three or four different stages, and you know when the stadium is without people, you listen to yourself. [Normally] when you talk during the game, nobody listens to anyone.
„So in this situation it’s weird but I think after two or three games, it’ll be normal.“
Whatever happens on the pitch, Guardiola and his former assistant Mikel Arteta will share a glass of wine together after Wednesday’s game at the Etihad.
While they do not message as much as they did in the weeks following Arteta’s departure to Arsenal in December last year, the pair remain close and have been texting this week in the build-up to the game.
„Our job is so busy, and sometimes we don’t have time to send a message honestly and that’s why I know we are good friends,“ Guardiola added.
„I’m very pleased that he is doing well and he is happy there and I know his capacity. It was a pleasure to work together and I think he was incredible, and he knows it. He was an incredible part of our success in the last years.
„I’m delighted to see him again and see his team playing against our team. Even during the game, the friendship at the end is the most important thing. It will never be broken [even though] for now we are rivals in our teams.“
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