Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says he’ll be limited in his team selection when his side faces intracity rival Manchester United tomorrow. It’s a Manchester derby EFL Cup clash, in the semifinal round, where the winner will take on Tottenham Hotspur in the final on April 25.
Ederson, Kyle Walker, Ferran Torres and Gabriel Jesus all missed out on Sunday, but City won 3-1 nonetheless, in a match that was more lopsided than that score indicates.
Manchester Derby EFL Cup Semifinal FYIs
Kickoff: Wed. Jan. 6 8pm
United Team News, Starting XI Prediction: go here
City Team News, Starting XI Prediction: go here
Other EFL Cup Semifinal Team News, Starting XI Prediction: go here
Important Note: this is not a two-legged tie this season, it’s just a one-off
Key Stat: City have won the last three League Cup titles, four of the last five and five of the last seven
Guardiola said his side can manage in the very short term, with a limited number of players, but over the longer term, it’s a non-starter.
“We don’t have many players and like I said after the first press conference,” Guardiola said in a news conference on Tuesday.
“To play one or two games is OK but if this sustains for a long time and I can only use 14 or 15 players it will be more difficult.”
“Like everyone in the world, we adapt, you have to adjust our lives and our professions as much as possible and we don’t have an alternative.
“The most important thing is that the guys who have COVID can recover well and the guys handle it well and try to avoid it as much as possible.”
It will be interesting to see what kind of team Guardiola goes with in this one, given that it is just a League Cup fixture, and he is hamstrung by fitness issues and the virus. But then again, all of us are limited right now by the covid-19 pandemic.
It’s limited all of us in our daily lives, work lives, social lives and personal lives. The quandary ahead for Gaurdiola is one that all of us can relate to.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.