Pep Guardiola admits key Manchester City trio could miss Tottenham clash

Doubtful: Aymeric Laporte is one of three key Manchester City players that could miss out against Tottenham
Getty Images

Manchester City are sweating on the fitness of three key players ahead of their clash with Tottenham.

Aymeric Laporte, Fernandinho and Benjamin Mendy all missed Wednesday’s Carabao Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester United through injury, and Pep Guardiola has cast doubt over whether any of them will be back for Sunday’s trip to Spurs.

Laporte is suffering from fatigue after making his comeback from a serious knee injury, Mendy has been struggling with a muscle issue and Fernandinho failed a fitness test.

Guardiola said: “They are not completely fit, Laporte, Ferna, Mendy. We’ll see in the next days.

“I’m pretty sure they’ll be okay for West Ham, maybe not Tottenham.

In Pictures | Man City vs Man Utd | 29/01/20

1/22

“They don’t want to take risks. Laporte is much better, but not recovered from the game at Sheffield United. Mendy is a bit better.”

City deployed a three-man defence against United, with Kyle Walker, Nicolas Otamendi and Joao Cancelo largely keeping Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side quiet.

Guardiola hasn’t ruled out sticking with that system against Spurs.

He added: “I still didn’t properly see the games against Tottenham. It’s a chance. Sometimes it depends on the quality of the players. [Heung-min] Son and Lucas [Moura]. they are incredibly fast.

“It’s an option but I don’t know. Maybe I was sending a message to my players. In this selection I was sending a message we have to attack.”

Despite the 1-0 defeat to United, City still progressed to a third straight Carabao Cup final, winning 3-2 on aggregate.

They will face Aston Villa at Wembley on March 1 as Guardiola goes in search of a sixth major trophy at the club.

In a week when Jurgen Klopp insisted he would play the kids and refuse to manage in Liverpool’s FA Cup fourth-round replay against Shrewsbury, Guardiola underlined his commitment to every competition.

“People say that you can be complacent about what we’ve won and you don’t try in the more humble competitions of the season,” he said.

“Of course the big games come in the Premier League and Champions League and everyone is there for them.

“When you win a lot normally they say this competition does not matter, but with me it does not happen.

“We can lose a game of course - but it will never happen. Never in my 11 years as a manager.

“I’m delighted – we are in the final for a third year in a row. It doesn’t matter what the competition is, we try to do it.

“Being at Wembley with a historic team like Villa, we are happy to be there again.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in