4 days ago
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Pep Guardiola admitted that he may have to rethink his midfield options after Manchester City struggled without Nico Gonzalez
Pep Guardiola admitted Manchester City have a major problem in midfield for the second season in a row. Having missed Ballon d'Or winner Rodri for the majority of their last campaign, and with the Spaniard still suffering from injury problems and Mateo Kovacic also out the team are finding themselves too reliant on Nico Gonzalez.
Gonzalez is the only City player to have started each of the last three games, with the majority of the in-form stars rested for the Champions League defeat to Leverkusen last week. It was no surprise then to see him taken off with City 5-2 up at Fulham with less than half an hour to go.
However, the midfield crumbled without him and the team retreated as Fulham advanced, which only encouraged Fulham to advance again. They survived in the end, albeit needing a goalline clearance from Josko Gvardiol in injury time, but Guardiola will need to think again because he knows that Gonzalez cannot play every minute as City attempt to challenge in four competitions.
"We have a problem. We have three holding midfielders and two injuries for a long time. Rodri will be back soon but Kova will be later," he said. "We don't have anyone and today we prove it. I have to think about it.
"Maybe Nico O'Reilly can play there and Rayan Ait-Nouri or Nathan can play left-back. Tijjani [Reijnders] can play but he's more a player for attacking positions, his position is where he scored the goal where he can be unstoppable in pockets. We have to find something."
Despite their issues, City moved two points behind Arsenal at the top of the Premier League to leave the Gunners nervously looking over their shoulder. It isn't sustainable to concede six goals in two games and challenge for titles, yet the Blues are picking up points without being close to their best and are hoping to improve considerably.
Guardiola is the longest-serving manager in the league and knows what it takes to win from different positions, even if he has a relatively new team. Arsenal remain strong favourites for the league, although there is a long time still to go.
"Arsenal have to play tomorrow, they are so strong and so solid," he said. "We have to put in our mindset that it will be difficult but at the same time the Premier League is so long. I am the oldest manager in the Premier League and have enough experience to make a long run to try to fight to win the Premier League. It is so long.
"Chelsea impress me more and more every day with Enzo (Maresca), it’s long. Many things will happen. We won six Premier Leagues, four or five when we were in January or February we were behind. The team who wins the Premier League is the team who grow during the months and this is what we try to do.
"If we push, we will be better and push ourselves and control the situations better. We’ll see what happens now against Sunderland. I saw the game against Fulham and oh my god now I understand why Sunderland are in the position they are. They are so incredible, they are top. But with the problems that we had and many good things, we are in a better position than last year, we are a bit closer and we continue."
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