'Not there' - Pep Guardiola has a theory to explain Man City injuries

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola spoke about the fitness of his team as they returned to second in the table.

Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City players are less injury-prone this season because they have more motivation to fight for the Premier League title.

City's coach was able to name seven different players in his starting XI to face Liverpool than the side that had lined up for the same fixture nine months ago. The board have sanctioned new signings but the Blues have also been massively helped by finally emerging from an injury crisis that derailed last season.

Guardiola has always put injuries front and centre of any explanations for their slump, but after beating Liverpool 3-0 he tied that reasoning to another factor: motivation. As has previously been written, many in the City squad lost an edge after winning four Premier League titles in a row.

Quoting his mentor Johan Cruyff, Guardiola linked the loss of motivation in the squad to the uncharacteristically high number of injuries. Having brought in new players and taken steps to raise standards across the group, the manager is much happier with the options he has available to him this season.

"We always take care of how difficult everything is, how complicated it is - go to Carabao Cup, FA Cup - it is difficult," he said. "That's why we won four Carabaos in a row and two or three FA Cup finals in a row.

"Last season it didn't happen after the success we had, we didn't handle it well because apparently we didn't have another target to fight. Nobody had done four titles in a row, not even 80s Liverpool or 90s United - and we did it, and what's next?

"Why there were a lot of injuries last season and this season, hopefully, we don't have them now? When you are not there, you get injured.

"When you are focused and you want to win and you want to be ready... Johan Cruyff told me: if you are ready, you don't get injured.

"Don't tell me why. The same methodology, the same training sessions, the same doctors, the same physios - why are there no injuries one year and all injuries the next year?

"Because you are not there, and because I was not there. It's a good experience to learn.

"We went to the transfer window in winter because we needed that energy back. I want players who want to make a career here, we need Cherkis, Ait-Nouris, Marmoush, Nico O'Reilly.

"We need all this energy to try to emulate what their predecessors has done. It's a normal process."

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