‘I think we are in trouble’ – do Man City really have just 13 fit players?

Pep Guardiola says Manchester City have “13 players” and are in “trouble” after his side suffered more injuries in the League Cup defeat at Tottenham on Wednesday.

The visitors, already without six first-team players for the game, lost defender Manuel Akanji with a calf issue in the warm up.

Savinho appeared to have hurt his ankle in the 63rd minute of the game, and he was then taken off on a stretcher.

Guardiola also said defender Ruben Dias, who went off at half-time, is “struggling” sometimes.

“We have 13 players, we are in real difficulties”, Guardiola said.

“The guys that play, they finish most of them with problems and we’ll see how they recover.

” I think we are in trouble, because in nine years we’ve never been in the situation with so many injuries.

After breaking his leg in August, attacking midfielder Oscar Bobb is also out for a long time. Guardiola stated at the time that he would be ‘three or four months’ away.

Kevin de Bruyne, who underwent surgery for five months last year, is out with a thigh injury. Guardiola previously stated he “didn’t know” when he would return.

Forwards Jeremy Doku and Jack Grealish both had injuries in recent games, while full-back Kyle Walker is out with a knee injury and has no known date for a potential return. Before the November international break, Guardiola claimed he didn’t anticipate Doku’s fitness.

Only seven substitutes were named by Guardiola for the games of Southampton over the weekend and Sparta Prague last week, with only two of those named on the bench.

After the Tottenham defeat, Guardiola stated, “We have two goalkeepers and Erling Haaland in the training session tomorrow.”

Going by the squad list on Manchester City’s official website, it does appear that Guardiola’s claim is accurate.

Obviously he will be able to call upon youth-team players, but excluding those injured, these are Manchester City’s available first-team outfield players:

Defenders:

Nathan Ake, Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol, Rico Lewis, John Stones, Josh Wilson-Esbrand

Midfielders:

Phil Foden, Ilkay Gundogan, Mateo Kovacic, James McAtee, Matheus Nunes, Bernardo Silva

Forwards:

Erling Haaland

Guardiola claimed that his main objective was to get through the game without suffering any more injuries in the run-up to Wednesday’s game.

Even though they lost to Spurs, the Manchester City side’s young players showed promise, and Nico O’Reilly, 19, was denied a late equalizer by a brilliant block on the line.

Manchester City is the top team in the Premier League, undefeated in Europe, but they haven’t advanced to the semi-finals of the competition. Guardiola has previously stated that his team will struggle to compete in multiple competitions if injured players don’t return soon.

“For sure, if these guys don’t come back as quick as possible, we’ll struggle, because we cannot sustain with just 14, 15 players for the season”, he said.