Pep Guardiola admits Man City’s defence ‘cannot handle’ the club’s injury issues

Pep Guardiola admitted that Manchester City cannot afford to field a stable back four because of underlying fitness issues.

City are in Copenhagen on Tuesday, boasting a firing Erling Haaland and knowing that victory guarantees qualification to the Champions League knockout stages with two games still to play in their group.

But Kyle Walker has undergone groin surgery and John Stones is suffering with a hamstring injury, while Guardiola claimed he has wider difficulties of managing the consistent aches and pains of his defenders.

Pep Guardiola has said Manchester City ‘cannot handle’ their current defensive injury issues

Kyle Walker (left) and John Stones are both out for Manchester City right now through injury

City have not fielded the same back four in any of their last seven matches and the manager believes they will have to share the load if the club are to lift silverware this term.

‘I would love to have the same back four but they cannot handle it,’ Guardiola said. ‘The players we have cannot handle every three days of being fit. Other teams might be able to, but we can’t.

‘John can’t, Nathan (Ake) can’t, Ruben (Dias) last season, Aymeric (Laporte) came back from a big injury so it’s important for us that everyone can play and everyone can perform well.

City have been unable to field consistent back four in recent games because of the issues

‘If you want to be in there with all the titles we are fighting for and with the World Cup and be in that position to fight until the end and we need to be ready to fight until the end, otherwise it will be so difficult.’

Ake – who has impressed over the last year after almost joining Chelsea over the summer – conceded the heavy rotation presented a tough challenge when he first moved to the Etihad Stadium.

‘The more you play the more confidence you have,’ Ake said. ‘My first season wasn’t great with injury and a lot of stop and start, the second season I got used to it (rotation), knowing what kind of squad we have. It’s up to you to perform.’

City have only conceded nine goals in nine Premier League matches so far this season and have already kept two clean sheets in Europe. Guardiola insisted they can improve, however.

Nathan Ake has said he gets more confident the more he plays in Man City colours

‘In general it’s good but we can do better in many aspects,’ he added.

‘When we have a period of playing games every three days we don’t have much time to analyse or think about the situation.’

‘In the last two games we have played better, scored a lot of goals and conceded few chances. It is the level we had in the previous four or five seasons and I like that, it means the team is still here, it didn’t disappear, this is good.’