Zack Steffen insists Manchester City are in as good a shape as they can be going into the new season, despite Community Shield defeat to Leicester.
City fielded a weakened team at Wembley as their senior players continue to return in stages from their post-tournament holidays, with youngsters Sam Edozie, Ben Knight and Cole Palmer all featuring against Leicester to fill gaps.
Second-choice goalkeeper Steffen was given a rare start and produced a fine performance, saving well on a number of occasions including a sensational point-black stop from Jamie Vardy.
However, Steffen couldn't stop Kelechi Iheanacho's 88th minute penalty as Leicester followed up their FA Cup win with Community Shield success, and the American spoke after the game to assess a difficult afternoon for City.
"It's been a quick preseason, we didn't have the whole squad back," he told City TV.
"The guys played really well and fought really hard. We just got unlucky at the end. Congratulations to Leicester. They played really well and tough today. It's an unlucky night for us but a good start to the season.
"[The penalty] happened really quick. We will learn from it. You always have to be ready for anything in these matches. You never know which way it is going to go."
Asked how City's players had reacted to the defeat in the dressing room, Steffen replied: "We want to win every game and we want to lift every trophy. We want to play well.
"Losing is not fun. Coming second is not fun. We can learn from it."
Looking ahead to next week's Premier League opener at Tottenham, Steffen said City have the best players to cope with more disruption in the final week of preparations.
He explained: "It's gonna be tough. A lot of players filtering in next week. We don't have a full squad right now. A couple of weeks pre-season isn't normal. We've got a really strong team mentally and physically, so I think we'll be alright."
