Manchester City news: Pep Guardiola confident his squad can fight for trophies on four fronts
Pep Guardiola insists his Manchester City squad have what it takes to remain in touching distance with Liverpool at the top of the Premier League, even as they continue to fight for silverware on four fronts.
City face Burton in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night, just three days after thrashing Rotherham 7-0 to progress to the fourth round of the FA Cup.
In contrast, title rivals Liverpool, who sit four points clear of the reigning champions, have only the league and Champions League to worry about.
Klopp rang the changes for his side’s trip to Wolves in the FA Cup on Monday night, with the Reds subsequently falling to a 2-1 defeat.
Guardiola has complete confidence in his squad though, commenting: “If everyone is fit and not injured we can cope with it
“The problem is if you have 10 injured players, it’s almost impossible. When everyone is fit, it’s better.
“Without that competition, if we had just one competition to play in, I could play with the same 11 or same 12.
“Now everyone is involved. The players don’t know who will play against Burton.
“Then after four days we have another final at home to Wolves.”
Guardiola insists he would rather be fighting on multiple fronts than solely focusing on one competition, insisting that momentum can be applied across all competitions.
He added: ”I prefer it, definitely.
“I like to be in the four competitions as far as possible. When Wigan put us out of the FA Cup last season I was sad.
“But since I arrived, the first season in the Carabao Cup we played against United and played with a lot of young players, the same the second season, the same the third season, that’s what has happened.
“I take the cups seriously. Against Rotherham, for example, we played with nine players who didn’t play against Liverpool and the nine were a good selection.
‘It was perfect for the rhythm for Kevin (De Bruyne), (Ilkay) Gundogan, Nico (Otamendi), Kyle (Walker) – perfect.”